Sep 15, 2026 · 6 min · 8 segments
Remember the whale from our tugboat episode? One curious Carpool Classroom listener had a question: What happened to it? In this special follow-up episode, Mrs. Nelson investigates the story of the…
Early in the morning on August 24th, 2026, a large ship arrived at the port of Tacoma, and there was something enormous on the front of it.
A whale.
The whale had died.
Wildlife experts came to investigate and eventually they learned exactly what kind of whale she was.
Okay, carpool classroom, picture a school bus.
A school bus is usually around 35 to 40 feet long.
That means this whale was almost as long as two school buses parked end to end.
Fin whales are enormous.
In fact, they're one of the largest animals on Earth.
But here's where the mystery began.
Scientists wanted to know, what happened to her? How do you investigate a whale? Scientists couldn't exactly ask the whale what happened, so they did something called a necropsy.
That's our big science word today, necropsy.
A necropsy is like an autopsy that scientists perform on an animal after it dies.
Scientists carefully examine the animal's body looking for clues.
Think of them like animal detectives.
They might look at the whale's skin, its bones, its organs, and injuries inside its body.
All of those clues can help scientists figure out what happened.
Early in the morning on August 24th, 2026, a large ship arrived at the port of Tacoma, and there was something enormous on the front of it.
A whale.
The whale had died.
Wildlife experts came to investigate and eventually they learned exactly what kind of whale she was.
Okay, carpool classroom, picture a school bus.
A school bus is usually around 35 to 40 feet long.
That means this whale was almost as long as two school buses parked end to end.
Fin whales are enormous.
In fact, they're one of the largest animals on Earth.
But here's where the mystery began.
Scientists wanted to know, what happened to her? How do you investigate a whale? Scientists couldn't exactly ask the whale what happened, so they did something called a necropsy.
That's our big science word today, necropsy.
A necropsy is like an autopsy that scientists perform on an animal after it dies.
Scientists carefully examine the animal's body looking for clues.
Think of them like animal detectives.
They might look at the whale's skin, its bones, its organs, and injuries inside its body.
All of those clues can help scientists figure out what happened.
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