They Have Taken Our Whale!

The National Marine Fisheries Service has removed the remains of a 30-foot-sperm whale that beached itself off of Big Pine Key in July. The agency is expected to take the 12-foot, 1,000-pound skull bone, which it removed Tuesday from the Gulf of Mexico near the western end of the Seven Mile Bridge, to its Key Biscayne laboratory.

The skull bone was the only remaining piece; officials believe the rest of the bones were eaten, stolen or collected by marine scientists. “That's one big whale bone,” City Manager Mike Puto said with camera firing. “Actually, I think I'm gonna miss it.”Others who will miss the whale are the slew of reported and unreported poachers who lifted nearly every bone from the carcass as it lie decomposing on a flat just a few hundred yards from a public boat ramp and popular sightseeing and fishing bridge.

Puto later joked that the skull could be used as a signature attraction in Marathon, much like the giant lobster in Islamorada. But it turns out the skull and a few other recovered bones could be headed upstate to experience the college life.