Science Museum of Fishery department, Hokkaido University

白鯨 上 (岩波文庫) (2004/08/19) ハーマン・メルヴィル 商品詳細を見る

I'm reading H. Melville's Moby-Dick; or, the Whale. The three volumes published by Iwanami are full of whaling information and it reminded me of a museum of Hokkaido University in Minato-cho. So I visited there the other day.

Entering from the central gate, the museum is located left end of its campus.

It has a lot of formalinized specimens.

All the pictures here can be enlarged by clicking them. The above photo is an oarfish. Japanese name is Ryugu-no-tukai, which means a messenger from Dragon's Palace. It was caught in Kamiiso.


Their faces are funny, aren't they?

On the first floor you can see formalin-specimens and fishing tools.


On the second floor you can find accessaries and marine art crafts.


But what I wanted to see was skeletal preparations of a whale. It was in an annexed room.

It was a Bryde's whale, not a sperm whale. But the size was big enough to amaze me.

You can see stuffed specimens of sea otters and seals.




The museum is open to public for free and you are requested to leave your name and address at the entrance.