Gallery with fin whale skeleton

A whale skeleton has been an integral part of the city park for many years, housed under a wooden canopy. 

The fin whale Balaenoptera physalus is the second largest animal on Earth, after the blue whale. Its maximum length reaches 27.3 m. In the World Ocean over 100 years (1868 - 1967) 842.5 thousand fin whales were caught. As a result of such intensive fishing, the number of whales declined greatly. In 1979, the International Whaling Commission imposed a total ban on whaling. The fin whale is listed in the Red Book of Russia.

There were several whaling flotillas in the Far East in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of them was the "Pacific Whaling and Fishery Society of Gr. One of them was the "Pacific Whaling and Fishing Society of G.G. Keyserling and Co", which existed until 1909 and stopped its activity after the loss of its ships during the Russo-Japanese War. During only two years - from 1895 to 1897 - its whalers caught 225 whales in the Sea of Japan.

On December 30, 1900, a whale skeleton was sent by rail from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, brought by Count Keyserling as a gift to the Khabarovsk Museum. In 1901 the skeleton arrived in Khabarovsk, and in October 1902 the assembly of the skeleton and its installation on the ground near the museum was completed. A telegram was sent to Keyserling: "Your Excellency Count Heinrich Gugovich! Priamursky department of the Imperial Russian geographical society has received ... whale skeleton which you sent as a gift to the department and now completed the assembling and installation of this colossal specimen... Notifying you about it and testifying that your gift is the best decoration of the museum, Priamursky department considers it its duty once again to express to Your Lordship sincere and deep gratitude for your interesting donation".

A whale skeleton was sent as a gift to the Khabarovsk Museum from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk by rail on December 30, 1900.

The uniqueness of the exhibit is also determined by the fact that hundreds of thousands of fin whales were mined, but a fin whale skeleton is rare in museums around the world. In Russia, apart from Khabarovsk, there is a complete skeleton of a fin whale only in St. Petersburg.