Soccer field whale

This is the life-sized, anatomically accurate, inflatable blue whale that made a brief appearance at the soccer field on Saturday.

The whale belongs to the Great Whale Conservancy, co-founded and directed by our neighbor Michael Fisbach.

Michael commissioned the inflatable whale from Big Ideas, which makes many of the inflated characters that float above big parades. They worked from Michael's photographs and from biologists' descriptions of blue whales. Michael helped them refine a series of clay models, and consulted on details with blue whale experts around the world.

The result, Michael says, is "the most accurate blue whale representation the planet has ever seen." The conservancy takes the inflatable whale to public events as a dramatic way of attracting attention to their work and to the plight of the great whales.

Michael and George Brasington (who has worked on the public-event inflations), set up the whale in the soccer field so they could figure out some refinements in their strategy for smoothly inflating it in public places.

It's a beautiful thing.