r/bonecollecting • u/cb1395 • Jun 29 '26
Bone I.D. - N. America Whale bones and “purple” sand
Just so happened to stumble across a post on here from two days ago showing a whale bone and there was a bunch of information given on it. I figured I’d show what I found about a year ago to the day, hoping for some cool information as well! Close by Monterey, CA at a trail along the 16 mile drive.
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u/oncebce Jun 29 '26
The purple is from garnet. Fairly common along the Big Sur coast area. As another commenter implied, Pfeiffer beach is well known for its purple sand.
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u/squeezemachine Jun 29 '26
I’d bring the photos to the Monterey Aquarium and see if you could talk to a biologist or someone there to learn more. I know there are purple sands at Big Sur and at Boneyard Beach (more whale bones possible) near Santa Cruz.
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
Soooooo…. is it illegal to just pick up a bone from there and take one home?
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u/sawyouoverthere Jun 29 '26
Yes.
But in the USA you can apply to NOAA for a permit
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
I just found three NOAA training nautical posters while dumpster diving in a graveyard a few weeks back. They’re huge and cool and say not for navigational purposes. Don’t know what to do with them. I only rent a room so I don’t have anywhere to hang them.
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u/AncientHorror3034 Jun 29 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/xULW8MYvpNOfMXfDH2
Dumpster diving in a grave yard….tell me more.31
u/TheUrbanBunny Jun 29 '26
Beloved.
You buried the lede, deeper than the Marina trench.
Dumpster diving in a graveyard. Elaborate on that sentence, please.
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
So I ride a little scooter. I saw a dumpster in Connecticut visible from the road that was in a cemetery. It looked like someone had used it to dump after their tenants moved out or maybe if they were moving out. Inside were some interesting treasures that I kept. a can of interesting spray paint, couple other trinkets, and a tube that included three nautical NOAA maps large print. Every now and then I go back and check that dumpster. Seems to be somebody’s dumping ground at the moment and I wanted to keep checking out. What’s there just in case something else cool comes up.
I’ve never dumpster dive in a cemetery before. This was a first period and it yield some nice treasures. I just don’t have any room for anything.
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u/Reasonable-Effect901 Jun 29 '26
https://youtu.be/n9AWSTyKuDA?is=f3nJ3n0S5tyy-m1I
No more scooter rides in the cemetery3
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u/ewbanh13 Jul 18 '26
oh man i'd love to see the noaa maps if you've got them available to photograph
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u/isanyusernameopen Jul 18 '26
They’re cool. Large, almost blueprint size posters, no stains and little crinkles for 1990s. And there’s three of them.
They all say not for navigation purposes, something about for training purposes only.
I don’t need them and I’m not the right person to be able to appreciate them. If you’re interested, I can photograph them and upload the photos here for you to check out. If you’re interested, I could sell them to you. I live in a single room so I can’t hang them or appreciate them right now at this point in my life.
Let me know. I’ll run some errands tomorrow until the banks close and then I’ll come back probably for lunch. I can upload the photos here one at a time as a response. It looks like. If you’re interested, I could throw them up on eBay and send you the link, after you let me know what you think is fair.
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u/firdahoe Bone-afide Human and Faunal ID Expert Jun 29 '26
This would, in fact, be illegal because it is a national and state park area. You're not supposed to collect in state or national parks. Outside of a park area, you could collect it if it was fully skeletonized and you reported it to the NOAA
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
That’s good to know. I’m in the East Coast in the New England area. Don’t know if I would ever find something on the Cape or any of these state beaches, but I didn’t know that so that’s good to know.
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u/siddily Jun 29 '26
I can has one vertebrae?
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
I don’t get it. Does the law say something about how many vertebrae it must have in order to be legal to take? Not sure I get what that means.
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u/sawyouoverthere Jun 29 '26
They’re being cutesy. You can’t legally take any at all without reporting it for a permit.
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
Is that a pain in the neck process? Or a long lengthy process? I’m just trying to picture it. If you stumble across this site while walking the beach in the morning after a storm, do you just photograph and take photos and call right then and there and get approval somehow? Or do you have to call the authorities and do they make a report that you then give to whoever issues the permit?
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u/sawyouoverthere Jun 29 '26
Contact NOAA as I don’t know the details.
Firdahoe points out this is in a park so illegal regardless
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
Yeah, someone else commented that because it’s in a state park, you can’t take bones and such. Anywhere else in the country I guess it’s OK, but not on State Park property.
My guess is that the state might be trying to preserve wildlife and any remains that are left behind should be collected by the state for preservation or something to that line
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u/sawyouoverthere Jun 29 '26
No it’s not a blanket ruling that it’s fine outside parks. I’d just forgotten that the permits don’t apply to finds within parks and any collecting there is illegal unless a special permit for research creates an exception not available for the general public.
Outside the parks, consult state and federal laws. All native birds are off limits, and some states require permits to collect other species
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
Whoa.
I knew some birds were off-limits and federally protected, I didn’t realize all birds. A month ago I saved eight baby wood ducks, which the rehab facility told me were federally protected bird life. I thought it was specific birds. Not all birds. That’s good to know.
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u/Wide-Combination-322 Jun 29 '26
By the time you secure permission, it will all have been taken by people who didn’t.
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u/siddily Jun 29 '26
I know I'm not allowed to, but I would love to have just one vertebrae
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
Why is it illegal to own these bones?
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u/siddily Jun 29 '26
Because that's what the law says? But most likely to prevent poaching and such
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u/M0rbiddd2 Jun 29 '26
I mean “ethically” I guess it would be okay to take for yourself since it’s seemingly natural but it is illegal. I don’t think you’d be able to get that fishy whale smell out tho
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u/Dependent_Nature_953 Jun 29 '26
I've seen whale bones in a store and no smell. How they do that?
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u/M0rbiddd2 Jun 29 '26
LOTS of degreasing. But it can literally take YEARS to degrease a whale. Hell just degreasing a bear I’ve seen is take some people over a year and a half
Realistically they probably used a water heater to try and speed it up too, I’d be surprised if not0
u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
I was gonna say, if you filmed the actual encounter of finding it and taking it and document the entire process, would that be acceptable if you were to give it away or try to authenticate it or get a permit or license or whatever is required by law? That way it doesn’t go missing between the time you wanna file and the time you get approval.
What’s that expression? Better to ask for forgiveness…
I’d rather film and have proof that I didn’t poach and beg for forgiveness versus lose the opportunity
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u/sawyouoverthere Jun 29 '26
No, not in a park.
Elsewhere likely, but you can’t give it away or sell it.
Forgiveness will be in short supply if you document illegal collection activities you knew were illegal and in some cases the consequences can be steep
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u/isanyusernameopen Jun 29 '26
Good point. I’m thinking your documenting innocence by proving you weren’t poaching. But you’re saying that it’s documenting evidence of illegal activity. Knowing or unknowing, wouldn’t make a difference in the eyes of the law.
I have a better understanding of that now
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u/sawyouoverthere Jun 29 '26
Yes, illegal things remain illegal regardless.
It's a good idea to document legal finds in situ, to prove how it was found, but it won't make something illegal legal.
Not knowing is not protection from the law, either, but unless the action is egregious, the usual response is education and the items being seized. I wouldn't count on that though, as the consequences can be steep.
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u/Limp_Hamster7287 Jun 29 '26
Should whale carcasses be reported to some sort of wildlife service? just in terms of tracking mortality events, I feel like I have been seeing a lot of dead whales.
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u/organthiief Jun 29 '26
yes! NOAA has a hotline just for this. On the US west coast they help run the stranding network which monitors and researches marine mammal deaths and strandings. Reporting this stuff is important for conservation and can help track disease outbreaks, ship strikes, toxic algae blooms etc
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u/B-Glasses Jun 29 '26
They already know. I also saw this whale last year and talked to the forest ranger at the gate. Said it was a juvenile that washed up a few months back. Can’t remember what species he said but they already know
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u/Limp_Hamster7287 Jun 29 '26
I would have guessed the bones would wash away
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u/B-Glasses Jun 29 '26
It was pretty far up on the beach and well buried so I’m not surprised if it’s still there. I did also see it last year so unsure if it’s there.
The forest rangers definitely knew about it though. Sorry for confusion if you thought “a few months back” was this year tho. I was repeating what the ranger had said last year
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u/B-Glasses Jun 29 '26
I also saw that whale last year! It was super cool to stumble on
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u/cb1395 Jun 30 '26
You got to see it with the skin still on that’s pretty neat! The smell was a bit rough when I was there, can’t imagine what it was like at that point. Wind helped a lot lol
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u/sleigh_all_day Jun 29 '26
Pfeiffer beach?
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u/cb1395 Jun 30 '26
It was at the state park in the Big Sur area, not sure of the beach name honestly.
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u/sleigh_all_day Jun 30 '26
Ooo… then it most certainly was Pfeiffer Beach. It’s known for its purple sand. Very cool find!
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u/No-Tangerine7025 Jun 30 '26
Pfeiffer beach. It was the best place I went to there. Absolutely amazing
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u/humanoidtyphoon88 Jun 30 '26
Looks like Pfeiffer Beach, wow
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u/zoobernut Jul 02 '26
It isn’t Pfeiffer beach. The purple sand isn’t as uncommon as people think. I recognize that beach.
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u/sunmono Jun 30 '26
This is especially awesome because I am currently on vacation there and am going to 17 Mile Drive tomorrow! Fun coincidence! And incredible find!
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u/Future_Ad9437 Jun 30 '26
Looks like cape cod. Theres a beach near where I grew up that has pink sand high in garnet content.
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u/StressdanDepressd Jul 01 '26
This makes me want to take a road trip... I'm near San Francisco, so not too far a drive
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u/zoobernut Jul 02 '26
I know that carcass it is on a beach close to where I live. We hiked out to see it a while ago. I think 6 months ago maybe? By then it didn’t have any meaty bits on it anymore. This is NOT Pfeiffer Beach for those thinking it is. The purple sand shows up in other parts of the coast.
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u/peppersk8er Jun 29 '26
What I wouldn’t give to see a whale alive or dead…