Whales, tales and trails: Can dead whales be as much of a tourism draw as live ones?
Whale-watching is popular with tourists — and not always on the water
No matter how many times you've seen a whale breach, it never gets old.
Whale-watching brings thousands of tourists to Newfoundland and Labrador each year. Living whales are, of course, the biggest draw, but do tourists have an interest in dead whales too?
That was the question posed by David Hayashida many years ago in his community of King's Point in Green Bay — a question at the heart of the latest episode of CBC's Land and Sea.
He had an idea to create whale pavilions in various towns in the region, showcasing skeletons of whales found in waters off this coast.
"So we did a travelling roadshow going from community to community to community saying, 'We've got a crazy idea, it could work. What do you think?'"
Many towns in Green Bay and White Bay liked the concept of a kind of whale trail around the region.
And, at that time, there was federal funding for the venture.
Once towns were on board with the concept, the challenge was finding the feature attraction: dead whales.
Understanding the underwater world
Hayashida says they were lucky to have someone very knowledgeable in their corner.
That was Jon Lien, PhD, still known affectionately as the whale man.
Lien was an animal behaviourist who dedicated much of his life to releasing whales and dolphins from entanglements.
He was always eager to help others understand the underwater world.
"So with Jon there, we had the right of first refusal to any whale that was washing up on the beaches. If the Royal Ontario Museum [or] some other big museum wanted a whale, they had to go through Jon, and Jon was giving us the first opportunity. So that was an incredible situation," said Hayashida.
A humpback whale that washed up in Cobb's Arm was assigned to the community of King's Point, and a sperm whale that washed up in the Codroy Valley was assigned to the town of Triton.
Volunteers spent many smelly weeks, cutting rotting flesh from whale bones.
Then they soaked the bones in crates in the ocean to allow sea lice to clean the bones completely.
Once dried, the bones were sent to Drumheller, Alta., to be assembled by experts.
Eventually, buildings were constructed to house the skeletons, and the whale bones took their place under the spotlights inside.
Hayashida says when their whale pavilion opened in 2010, they had one bus tour visit.
A popular draw
This past summer of 2022, they had 114 tours stop to admire their humpback.
"So we feel that there's just lots and lots more potential for that to grow into something so much bigger because just think if you add, like, seven or eight more pavilions, then it becomes a real tour," Hayashida said.
That was the whole idea from the beginning.
And there were four other towns that had collected dead whales and preserved them to eventually showcase them in pavilions of their own.
But the federal funding dried up as quickly as the whale bones back in 2005.
Since then, there have been whale skeletons in the towns of La Scie, Westport, Middle Arm and Springdale, sitting in crates, sheds and warehouses.
Clyde Saunders was the mayor of La Scie when the whale trail idea was spawned. His community preserved a minke whale.
"I would just like to see it finished. That way we can say, well, our efforts weren't in vain. It was a living animal but unfortunately it got caught in a net and died and I guess that's one way we can pay our respect to that animal," said Saunders.
Learn about the other whale skeletons in the region and what the town's hope for their future. Watch the Land and Sea episode called Whale Tales and Trail by clicking the the video above to see the full episode.
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