LUBEC, Maine — A group of volunteers will gather at Mowry Beach during low tide Sunday to begin the process of digging up and recovering the bones of a stranded whale was buried at the site 20 years ago.
“This is just the beginning,” Rhonda Welcome, one of the organizers of the effort, said Wednesday.
The 54-foot finback whale, properly known as a fin whale, was stranded on the beach in 1994. A backhoe was used to dig a trench and bury the carcass.
Welcome operates Turtle Dance Totems, a small business, in the coastal town with her husband, Chuck Kniffen. They were walking on the nearby beach when they discovered whale bones protruding from the mud in the fall of 2013, she said. Welcome broached the subject of recovering the bones with other residents.
Sunday’s event is a preliminary dig. Volunteers will map out a grid of the area, mark it with flags and dig several test holes, according to Welcome. One object of Sunday’s efforts will be to determine whether the bones still have any whale flesh or other remains attached. The remains will be excavated Oct. 4-5.
The bones eventually will be cleaned, reassembled and put on display somewhere in Lubec, Welcome said.
Organizers have obtained permission and guidelines from the Downeast Coastal Conservancy to remove the skeleton from the organization’s inter-tidal property.
Gayle Kraus, a professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine at Machias, and Rosemary Seton, a research associate and marine mammal stranding coordinator with the College of the Atlantic’s marine mammal research group, Allied Whale, will help lead the effort. Kniffen also has been in contact with Dan DenDanto, a senior scientist at Allied Whale, who has expertise in cleaning, articulating and restoring whale skeletons.
“We want everybody to be part of digging it up and putting it back together,” said Welcome, who is hoping for about eight to 10 volunteers. “There is something very mystical about whale bones,” she added.
Anyone interested in joining the recovery effort or in more information can do so by visiting Turtle Dance Totems’ Facebook page, calling Welcome at 733-4844, emailing turtledance@myfairpoint.net or just showing up. Volunteers will meet at the beach, located at the end of Pleasant Street, at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 21. They should have adequate boots and bring rubber gloves and clam rakes if possible. The work is expected to wrap up by 4:30 p.m.