The Royal Ontario Museum will now only take one blue whale carcass back to Toronto, the other, will remain in Newfoundland, 700 kilometres from where it will be taken apart.
In a deal reached with Memorial University in St. John’s, the ROM has agreed to continue with the process of dismembering and cleaning the dead creatures. Then the skeletal structures can be assembled for research and display purposes. Both will end up far from where they washed ashore.
Blue whales are protected under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, but nothing could protect them from the elements this year. It was a brutal spring for blue whales in the north Atlantic. Nine were killed by the heaving pack ice after the long and challenging winter. Two whales washed ashore near Trout River and Rocky Harbour on the southwest coast.
Mark Engstrom, Senior Curator and Deputy Director of Collections and Research at the Royal Ontario Museum, is the man leading the effort to dismember and transport the foul-smelling remains. He had hoped to bring both carcasses back to the ROM, however, it’s proving to be too costly, and Newfoundlanders had wanted to keep at least one of the giant mammals.
In an interview with Global News, Dr. Mark Engstrom said, “It’s very important that we preserve these animals as research specimens, so they aren’t just lost,”
But there is a sea of logistics to be worked out before either blue whale is available to be seen by the public, beyond the southwest shore of Newfoundland.
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