The orca washed up on Brighton beach near the aquarium on May 21, 1935 after it was believed to have been hit by a ship – according to the historic cetacean strandings report made at the time.
She has been the largest object in the Booth Museum’s collection since for researchers and nature buffs alike – and it has made a return following a tour on the Monsters of the Deep exhibition.
The skeleton in place at the museum (Image: Brighton Museums)
It took a team of nine people to carry the 18 metre-long skeleton into the museum in Dyke Road – including curator Lee Ismail.
Lee said: “She was a fairly old specimen, her teeth were very worn down. There were also several previous injuries, a couple of broken ribs and a break on her spine which had all healed.
“Killer wales aren’t that common in the channel. They swim past sometimes but they are not residents.”
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The curator at the Brighton museum said visitors are often amazed by the size of the mammal, which they do not expect to see so close to home.
“Kids always mistake it for a dinosaur skeleton,” said Lee. “It’s an impressive size.
“And of scientific value, it helps us to demonstrate how animals can survive injury, and what the population was like at the time.
“It also tells us about the type of pollutants and chemicals in the environment at the time, compared to modern pollutants.”
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