After the Minke whale was cleaned and rearticulated

Our Minke whale has swam home! Thanks to the hard work of Cetacea Contracting, the Minke whale has been cleaned and rearticulated. It is now hanging back in the Whale Interpretive Centre!

Before the Minke whale was rearticulated

The Whale Interpretive Centre’s minke whale was acquired in the early 1990’s when Captain Mike Durban, owner of the charter vessel ‘Blue Fjord’, was off Cape Caution and found a dead minke whale floating near the shore. He contacted Jim Borrowman and asked if he would like it and the answer was an enthusiastic "Absolutely!".

This took place 10 years before the Whale Interpretive Centre was officially opened in Telegraph Cove on Northern Vancouver Island. 

Mike towed the minke whale back to Telegraph Cove, and this started a multi- year process of cleaning and - eventually - having it articulated. There were no funds at this time to move forward so the skeleton was carefully packed away. 

A man by the name of Gilles Dani, who worked on dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, called and offered to assemble the minke whale for no charge if he could make moulds of each bone. His goal was to cast replica skeletons and sell them to museums.

His offer was gladly accepted and the minke whale was hung in the WIC the following year. 

After almost 20 years, the bones have deteriorated and some of the oils inside the bones have gravitated to the outside of the bone and so the minke whale needs a complete disassembly and re-articulation. 

The Whale Interpretive Centre took the minke whale to Cetacea Contracting, which is owned and operated by the husband-and-wife team Mike deRoos and Michi Main. 

Cetacea Contracting has assembled almost all of the collection that hangs in the Whale Interpretive Centre.