The blue whale vertebrae that chiropractor, Jerome Fryer, acquired from a drag-net fisherman in Ucluelet, B.C., in 1991 have finally found a home in a skookum new installation in his new Nanaimo office.  The bones posed really unique preparatory challenges for us as they had probably sat on the deep ocean floor for decades, acquiring anaerobic bacterial communities and altering the oils that we usually deal with in large bones like these.  But we are pleased with the results.  Dr. Fryer is using these bones as art installation and patient education tool in his practice in conjunction with the innovative dynamic human spinal models he creates.

After many phone calls with Marc and John at Reliance Specialty Products and several months of fabricating and puzzling together the electrical and plumbing, we have successfully run our first batch of skeletons through our new hot vapour degreasing system.  In about one month, we were able to thoroughly and safely degrease a 35' gray whale, two killer whales, a collection of blue whale vertebrae and a few other bones as well.  Check out our degreasing page for more info about our new machine.