Tla-o-qui-aht members harvest grey whale carcass washed ashore on Vancouver Island

A Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Park guardian says the death of a grey whale that drifted ashore on Vancouver Island near Tofino, B.C., last week, though unfortunate, became an opportunity for community members to engage in their culture.

"I hope that this doesn't happen again, but also it was a huge learning experience," said Gisele Maria Martin.

The dead whale was witnessed floating offshore on May 6 before it washed ashore the next day in Tla-o-qui-aht territory, on Long Beach near Pacific Rim National Park Reserve.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada says its Marine Mammal Response Team worked with Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and Parks Canada to secure the animal and perform a necropsy. The cause of death will not be confirmed until tests are complete, which usually takes two to three months.

"I've never been involved in butchering a whale like that in my life," Martin said.

"To see the amount of knives that we needed and tools that we needed … the amount of work that's going on behind the scenes is huge. I did a count at one point and there was 19 people actively working on the whale."

Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation members not only helped process the whale, said Martin, several dozen more gathered to witness and collect parts of the whale for cultural purposes.

"We began by kind of clearing the space, and my sister came down, family came down, and we had a ceremony for the spirit of that whale," said Martin.

"The next thing we know, like these kids were wearing these little white suits and gloves and they were wanting to help pull the blubber off the whale, and taking turns …. It was a really, really special feeling."

According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the whale is part of the Eastern North Pacific population, which was assessed under the federal Species at Risk Act in 2005 as being of special concern.

2 dead grey whales days apart

A second dead grey whale was spotted May 11 on Haida Gwaii near Sidegate, B.C.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada said it hasn't been able to establish which of the three grey whale populations in the North Pacific the second whale belongs to.

Juan José Alava, a marine toxicologist and researcher with the University of British Columbia, said grey whale deaths between 2018 and 2023 from Mexico up to the North Coast prompted a declaration of an "Unusual Mortality Event (UME)."

"It seems that there is episodes of this kind of mortality events," said Alava.

"You might see more mortality events as the climate change is affecting the breeding grounds and also the feeding grounds."

A study published in PLOS One last year of 61 carcasses of grey whales that died during the UME between 2018 and 2021 in the eastern North Pacific found 26 per cent were "severely emaciated."

"Most of them were individuals that have blunt force trauma due to ship strikes," Alava said.

"Because of lack of nutrition, they were more susceptible to be hit with a ship because … they didn't have enough blubber to float."

Alava said changes in sea ice due to climate change results in less area for microalgae to grow, which is consumed by crustaceans in ocean sediment that grey whales feed on.

Alava said grey whales also can face exposure to toxins like domoic acid produced by algal blooms caused by agricultural run-off in warmed waterways, that can affect the brain and nervous system and/or cause death.

CBC Indigenous could not reach anyone at the Council of the Haida Nation office for comment.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has confirmed a Marine Mammal Response Team is working with local First Nations to co-ordinate a necropsy of the latest dead whale.