Scientists and volunteers this month finished collecting the bones of the 39.5-foot adult male gray whale that washed up dead on the eastern shore of Vashon Island in early April.

Now, the whale — which took on a new role this spring as a food source for the creatures of the Salish Sea — is about to begin another chapter in its storied existence.

The whale’s death, likely due to malnourishment, became a rare opportunity for science education, because it washed up far away from any public beaches or private properties where its odor might have forced officials to move it.

Thus began nearly half a year of decomposition, as tens of thousands of pounds of whale flesh baked in the summer heat, attracting hungry critters for a feast of epic proportions.

Scavengers of the decomposing whale included coyotes, crows and even a turkey vulture, according to Vashon Nature Center Science Director Bianca Perla. At high tide, when water washed over the carcass, crabs and ravenous migrating juvenile salmon attended to the banquet.

“Once the skin of the whale split open, it was only a matter of days before the bones were really quite visible, and almost picked clean,” Perla said.

Perla recalled watching the trail cameras, “mesmerized,” as phosphorescent trails of light created by hungry fish danced around the carcass in the late summer.

The micro-ecosystem created by the whale caused other natural wonders. Birds used the calm waters sheltered by the whale to rest and forage. A calm tide pool developed behind the whale, filling with fish who’d come for a snack — and those fish, in turn, were easy pickings for a blue heron who regularly returned to the pool to feast on the salmon caught inside.

The whale also received several human visitors per day, who were generally “really respectful” and even voluntarily stepped in to keep loose bones from washing out to sea, Perla said.

It helped to have a crew of around 20 volunteers who checked in on the whale “pretty much daily,” Perla said. And it probably didn’t hurt to have several trail cameras aimed at the whale and recording 24/7, she pointed out.

And fascination around the whale created a community, she said, bringing in many volunteers from on-and-off island. Volunteers Zack Fowler and Madelaine Katz have commuted from Gig Harbor once a week to check on the whale, for example

“It really gives me hope for humanity, that people want to chip in, they’re curious and they’re respectful,” Perla said.

Over several trips this summer, scientists and volunteers collected many of the bones and the whale’s baleen, which it used in life to filter feed.

September 5 was the final trip to retrieve the last of the bones, including the whale’s massive skull.

From start to finish, the crew of about a dozen scientists and volunteers finished collecting the bones in less than an hour.

Loading the massive skull (weighing an estimated 500 pounds) onto a boat operated by World Vets Field Responder EJ Verble took most of the crew, but smaller bones like vertebrae and scapulae were easier. (World Vets is part of the marine mammal stranding network for Vashon Island.)

Altogether, the bones will probably total around 1,200 to 1,500 pounds, Perla said. Gray whales weigh 60,000 pounds when alive.

Tackling the project was a group primarily made up of women — a sign of an encouraging trend of women getting more involved in marine science, Perla said. (An all-woman team performed the necropsy of the whale in April.)

“I think it’s really cool,” Perla said. “I graduated with my bachelor’s in 1996. I was in the minority. But now, we work with marine science classes in Seattle University, and our marine science class that we do in the high school here, there’s more women interested and comfortable in those positions.”

Retrieving all the bones was laborious, careful, and sometimes stinky work. Scientists and volunteers hauled vertebrae, sliced apart cartilage to get smaller bones and gingerly loaded the whale’s skull on-and-off the World Vets boat.

It felt poignant, Perla said. The whale’s life may have ended in the spring, but that opened a new chapter wherein its decomposing body gave nutrition and life back to its environment.

Now, what remains of his body is once again taking on a new role. The whale’s bones will be cleaned and recombined so that they can be permanently displayed at Vashon Center for the Arts atrium.

“There’s a saying in forestry, that when a tree falls, only half their life is over,” Perla said. “These big animals give so much to the Puget Sound ecosystem. … He’s given back to the ecosystem for all these months, and now there’s this new chapter, where he’s going to be giving back for his species, like a sentinel to humanity.”

Displaying the bones will be a two-year process, Perla said. High school students this winter will help researchers catalog the bones, which involves weighing, measuring, photographing, illustrating, and possibly even 3D scanning the bones. The process will give them an idea of the overall weight of the skeleton and clarify whether any of the bones are missing and if replacement bones need to be fabricated.

Next summer, the bones will be taken outside to bask in the sun, fully drying them out and killing any remaining bacteria.

Finally, with the help of students, engineers and scientists will articulate and rebuild the skeleton from fall 2025 through spring 2026. They’ll ultimately suspend it from VCA’s ceiling.

Voyaging back to Dockton with whale bones in tow, Perla and Verble reflected on the optimism their work gave them in a field — the environment — which is so often dominated by pessimism.

“People are always saying, ‘You work in the environmental field, you must be so depressed.’ I think it’s the opposite,” Perla said. “I feel like it makes me more hopeful, because I see so many people putting in so much effort.”

“You get to be involved in the success stories,” Verble said. “And you’re surrounding yourself with people who also care.”

The Vashon Nature Center is fundraising to complete the whale skeleton project. Learn more by visiting gofund.me/2b62d369 or sign up to volunteer by visiting vashonnaturecenter.org/events.

The team of researchers and volunteers successfully loads the gray whale skull onto a World Vets boat, on which it was taken to Dockton Park. (Alex Bruell photo)

World Vets Field Responder EJ Verble prepares to make landfall while Vashon Nature Center Science Director Bianca Perla looks for the remains of the gray whale through her binoculars. (Alex Bruell photo)

Bianca Perla hauls whale vertebrae from the shores of Vashon Island. (Alex Bruell photo)

Vashon Nature Center Field Education Specialist Santiago Ramos-Torrescano smiles while holding a scapula (shoulder bone) from the gray whale. (Alex Bruell photo)

This fin, which was pinned underneath the gray whale carcass, was one of the few remaining pieces of flesh that scavengers had not cleaned away. (Alex Bruell photo)

Vashon Nature Center Field Education Specialist Santiago Ramos-Torrescano climbs a tree to retrieve a trail camera suspended around 30 feet in the air. (Alex Bruell photo)

The researchers and volunteers complete the complicated hand-off of the whale skull from a World Vets boat onto a waiting truck at the Dockton Park boat launch. (Alex Bruell photo)