Scientists receive unexpected help in whale recovery

Researchers from the University of British Columbia working to unearth a blue whale on P.E.I. received some surprise assistance on the weekend.

The whale washed up on the shore of western P.E.I. in 1987 and was buried more or less on the spot where it beached. UBC scientists located the site last fall and have returned to exhume it in order to display the bones at a new centre for biodiversity.

Driving rain over the weekend made an inevitably messy job even worse. Despite decades in the ground, the whale is remarkably well-preserved. Much of the flesh is still on the bone, making it a very smelly job.

Bone on display in recreation room

But one local man made the work a little easier on the weekend. John Pitre informed the researchers that the bones from one of the fins were not in the hole, but on his property.

"I had a one down in the basement there for quite a few years: the biggest bone of all, I kept an eye on that one. The other ones were still in the woods," said Pitre.

Pitre, who works on local lobster wharfs, told CBC News somebody took a chainsaw and cut off one of the whale's fins when it washed ashore in November 1987. He found the fin, took it home, put one bone in his recreation room and tossed the remainder of the fin in the woods behind his house.

It sat there for more than 20 years.

"It's great to have [the fin bones] back," said Chris Stinson, one of the whale recovery team members.

"It's so amazing he was able to find them in the forest after so many years."

The whale bones from Pitre were in very good shape and much easier to work with. The ones coming out of the hole are heavy, dirty and smelly. The ones from Pitre are clean and relatively light.

As of Monday, about two-thirds of the whale had been recovered. The largest bone, the skull, still remains. Scientists are cleaning, tagging and cataloguing each of the bones. They hope to ship it to the west coast on Thursday.

Pitre said he feels good about handing over his souvenir.

"I kind of wish I'd kept one bone, but it's kind of hard to do that," he said.

Pitre said he wouldn't mind seeing the assembled skeleton one day, but doubts he'll make the trip.