Royal Ontario Museum seeks local help to recover second blue whale
WOODY POINT, N.L. – The Royal Ontario Museum is seeking local help before it decides whether it will handle a second blue whale carcass in western Newfoundland.
Mark Engstrom, deputy director of collections and research for the museum, says he’ll decide in the next day or two whether work on the second whale in Rocky Harbour will go ahead.
His team is packing today the last of the bones from a 23-metre female whale near Woody Point that will be trucked to Trenton, Ont.
Those specimens will later become accessible to scientists as part of the Royal Ontario Museum’s collection.
The skeleton may also be assembled for display if funds are available.
Engstrom had hoped to handle both whales after local officials asked for help dealing with the rotting carcasses before they affect business in a prime tourism zone.
But he says unexpected costs, such as towing the first whale from Trout River to nearby Woody Point, have added up.
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