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Copenhagen, 13 July 2003: The two-ton carcass of an immature Minke whale that drowned off the coast of Skagen, Denmark was brought on 12 July to the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen for use as a natural history specimen.

The tragedy is that the whale drowned because it was caught in a stationary fishing net.

However, the body of the whale was a source of fascination for hundreds of children and adults. The Museum used the opportunity of the preparation of the whale as a specimen to teach the public about whales and about the dangers they face from human activity.

Hundreds of people and several TV crews attended the dissection of the animal on the lawn outside the Museum (see large photo, which was taken from the window of the GBIF conference room). The carcass was too large and too heavy to be taken into the Museum's usual specimen-preparation laboratory.