The object at hand. (blue whale model in the National Museum of Natural History)

For the past three decades 8,000 pounds of fiberglass has been "sounding" from the ceiling in the Life in the Sea Hall of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). It is the most stupendous proxy animal the museum has ever created. But at 92 feet in length and 34 feet in height, it no more than does justice to the dimensions of the huge creature it represents the blue whale.

The blue is the largest animal that has ever lived. In real life some blues reach 100 feet, which makes them longer than an apatosaurus. Weighing in at some 150 tons, one blue whale is heavier than 25 full-grown African bush elephants. In death the creatures once provided meat for dogs and humans; oil for lighting, margarine and face cream; glycerin for munitions.

Even so, the great size and speed of blues (at up to 25 knots or 29 miles per hourthey went faster than whaling ships could follow), plus the fact that they sank swiftly when killed at sea, protected them somewhat during the first four centuries of the whaling industry. Then, in the late 1860s, Svend Foyn perfected a highly effective harpoon cannon that featured an exploding head. Worldwide whale protection did not set in …