Natural History Museum
News //
The Lee Kong Chian National History Museum (LKCNHM) of the Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore (NUS), is conducting studies on a baleen whale carcass that was discovered in Singapore’s waters on 6 September 2025. The current flow of events is as follows:
6 September 2025
12 September 2025
During the salvage operation of the baleen whale carcass on 12 September 2025 near the Marina Bay Cruise Centre, one side of its mandible (i.e. the right lower jaw) dislodged and fell into the water. Fortunately, the following morning, on 13 September, the Singapore Salvage Engineers (SSE) successfully recovered the mandible and proceeded with transporting the carcass to their shipyard in Tuas.
13 September 2025
On 13 September, LKCNHM collected its first tissue samples for genetic analysis.
15 September 2025 to present
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LKCNHM commenced defleshing work on 15 September.
Insects were found on the baleen whale carcass. Find out more here!
As of 3 October 2025, after 15 days of defleshing, we concluded the defleshing process.
The next step of preserving the whale skeleton is to degrease the bones. More updates on the process will be shared in due course.
Related news articles here:
继抹香鲸后 新加坡海域相隔10年再现鲸骸 – LianHe ZaoBao, 16 September 2025
遗骸解剖工作已完成七成 本地将迎50年来首具须鲸骨架 – LianHe ZaoBao, 27 September 2025