The Galeta Island Marine Laboratory, which has been run by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) since 1964, just got a new exhibit. It began with a tragedy.

One day, Engineer Ricardo Morales, who works at the nearby Chevron-Texaco oil refinery, called STRI director Stanley Heckadon and asked him if he wanted a whale. "Dead or alive?" Heckadon asked.

It was an 18-ton, 51-foot Bryde's whale that had been hit by a ship and washed up ashore near the refinery, dead. Normally these whales get out of the way, but an autopsy found that the cetaecean had been suffering from an infection, and was probably to weak or disoriented to avoid its fate.

Laboratory director Inez Campbell, a marine biologist, chalks it up to pollution in the Caribbean Sea. She said that whales, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals are much more prone to illness in contaminated waters. "This exhibit will help raise consciousness about what happens when the sea is polluted," she said.

On hand for the exhibit's opening were groups of students from the Caribbean International School and the Academia Arabe Panameña in Margarita and the Oxford School in Panama City. Noteworthy by their absence were any Panamanian government officials, not even from the public schools.

The public schools were, however, represented by two Colegio Abel Bravo students, Yorlena Ester Díaz Córdoba and Betsy Magaly Sánchez, winners of first and second places respectively in an Earth Day essay contest sponsored by the Panamerican Round Table, a women's civic group. Yorlena says she wants to be a journalist, while Betsy is looking forward to studying medicine.

The lab is open for visitors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Sundays. It's sometimes even possible for people to rent one of the trailers at the lab and sleep overnight on Galeta Island, though scientists have first priority. Before you visit, or if you want to arrange to rent one of the trailers, call 616-2191 or email Inez Campbell.

Heckadon, right, talks business with Campbell, back to camera.

Left to right we have Betsy Magaly, Yorlena Díaz, and the Mesa Redonda's Ramona Eiter and Cheryl Klein, all with the sun in their eyes.

The lab has a number of aquarium tanks, which among other things help in their mission to save endangered sea turtles.