“After thousands of hours of effort by volunteer Beach Watchers and Navy personnel, Rosy the Whale moves to her new home on the Coupeville wharf at 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17.Beach Watcher volunteers worked alongside NAS personnel from Construction Battalion Unit 417, the Environmental Affairs and Supply departments, and the Fuels, Recycling and Self-Help divisions to rebuild the gray whale skeleton.CBU-417 will supply the personnel and equipment to transport the completed skeleton of the gray whale from Building 21 on the Seaplane Base to her new home in the red wharf barn in Coupeville. Due to concern for public safety, Rosy’s move is closed to the public.The 33-foot gray whale washed ashore on Whidbey Island near Greenbank in December of 1998, apparently starved to death. NAS Whidbey Island biologist Matt Klope and several volunteers from Beach Watchers decided that preservation and reconstruction of the whale’s skeleton would be beneficial to the community as a scientific and educational project. The reconstruction includes the replacement of the baleen plates in the whale’s jaw, rare among existing skeletal models. “