The ROM Dives into Publishing with The Day the Ocean Disappeared

The Royal Ontario Museum's new exhibition Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story picks up after a tragic event that captured the country's attention in 2014: Nine rare blue whales became trapped in ice and died. Their loss represented 3% of the the Northwest Atlantic's entire blue whale population. Two of the whales' bodies washed ashore, allowing an unprecedented research opportunity. The result of that research was a leap forward in biologists' understanding, allowing greater efforts in conversation. The ROM's exhibition now hosts the 80-foot skeleton of Blue, one of the whales. 

To complement the exhibition, the ROM has created extensive children's programming and even published a picture book. The Day the Ocean Disappeared is written by Denise Dias, a ROM communications professional, and illustrated by Tara Winterhalt, a senior designer with the ROM. The two have teamed up before for Burton & Isabelle Pipistrelle: Out of the Bat Cave, also previously published by the ROM. 

The Day the Ocean Disappeared follows a blue whale named Zula and teaches kids interesting whale facts. The book is geared towards 3- to 4-year old readers and available at the ROM and booksellers currently. 

The Out of the Depths exhibition is currently open at the ROM.