Dead whale removed from B.C. beach

Souvenir hunters and tourists who were taking pieces from a dead grey whale beached in a park near Sooke, B.C., have forced the removal of the mammal.

The Beecher Bay First Nation brought their concerns to the Department of Fisheries after members noticed that hunks of the whale's hide and other parts had been removed.

The young whale washed up on the shores of the regional park about 40 kilometres south west of Victoria on Vancouver Island more than a week ago.

The carcass had become a tourist attraction with hundreds of people going to see the dead animal, having their pictures taken on top of it and taking home a memento or two.

Paul Cottrell, marine mammal co-ordinator with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said many members of the nearby First Nation didn't like the way the mammal was being handled.

"A lot of the baleen had gone missing that people had taken off the animal and other parts, it was cut into. So they were really concerned about the treatment of the animal."

Grey whales use the baleen that hangs from their upper jaw to filter the food they eat.

Whales don't usually wash up on accessible shores and are often left to rot where they've landed, but Cottrell said this mammal was in a location that was too accessible to the public.

"Even though grey whales are listed as a special concern, under the Species At Risk Act, it's technically not illegal to remove dead parts."

Cottrell said organizers from the First Nation quickly found a burial site on their own land for the whale and organized a towboat to pull it off the rocks.

The whale was pulled off with a tug at high tide on Saturday, taken about four kilometres across the bay and then dragged to the burial site.

"It was just amazing, it all went quite well," Cottrell said.

"It's nice when you have all these different elements and groups involved that it worked out so well."

In about two years, Vancouver Island University and the Beecher Bay First Nation will dig up the carcass and its skeleton will be used for research and display.

It's believed the young grey whale died of starvation while travelling between the Mexican Baja and its feeding grounds in the Bering Sea.