On New Year’s Eve at the Topsham Public Library, dozens of children gathered there got a little more than the usual fireworks and celebrations.
They went for a walk — inside a whale.
A 43-foot life-sized, inflatable humpback whale named Chunk, to be specific, with some of its features, like its baleen (instead of teeth), tongue, jaw bones, brain, blowhole, heart, lungs, three-chamber stomach, rib cage, spine and intestines included.
One of those kids was 5-year-old Ava Sawyer, of Topsham, who offered a review of the whale after emerging from her tour. “It was cool inside,” she said, adding that seeing Chunk’s huge heart was the best part.
Chunk belongs to Jessica Woodend, of Topsham, who visits schools, libraries and other public spaces around the state with Chunk in tow. Woodend calls her small business Within the Whale, and in 2025, she and Chunk visited 84 locations.
Woodend charges $275 for the first hour to present the Within the Whale program, with a charge of $175 for more hours, and offers a sliding scale when needed.
She has plans to expand the business into a nonprofit if she’s able to bring in extra help. For now, she donates some of the proceeds from her business to organizations in Maine that work in marine conservation.
A reminder of Maine’s ecosystem
Chunk is named after a female humpback whale who lived in the Gulf of Maine. The whale was named Chunk in humpback whale catalogs because its dorsal fin was missing a chunk. The whale died in summer 2024 after becoming ensnared in fishing nets off Cape Elizabeth.
Woodend named the inflatable whale Chunk as a reminder of the importance of Maine’s marine ecosystems, and made sure the manufacturer included Chunk’s unique dorsal fin. The inflatable was made in Minnesota by Landmark Creations for $14,000, which Woodend paid by using her own money and donations. The whale took about eight weeks to complete.
Chunk is about 43 feet long, stands 7 feet high and 26 feet wide from flipper to flipper, a size comparable to a 10-year-old female humpback. The inflatable Chunk weighs 120 pounds; her namesake tipped the scales at 29 tons.
Woodend uses a minivan and rolling bin to transport the deflated Chunk, and it takes about 15 minutes to inflate.
The road to chunk
Woodend, 39, studied natural resource management with a specialty in environmental education at Michigan State University. She moved to Maine in 2012.
She works part-time as the head of community engagement for BatBnB, a small business that designs and builds bat houses and contributes to bat conservation. She also spent a decade working for the wildlife environmental organization Chewonki in Wiscasset.
Woodend is also a longtime volunteer at Marine Mammals of Maine, which responds to stranded marine animals and sea turtles and cares for sick, injured and abandoned seals.
Within the Whale is Woodend’s full-time gig, and her favorite part is seeing how excited kids are about getting close to Chunk.
At the Topsham library, Woodend led the children inside the whale in groups of 20, pointed out the whale’s heart, lungs and stomach, and shared whale facts, including how and what they eat.
Brie Bernier, 5, of Topsham, said she enjoyed the whale “this much!” and stretched her arms wide.
Brie exited Chunk after touching the lungs and ribs. She said she’d go inside Chunk again because “it was so amazing.”
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Aimsel Ponti can be reached at aponti@pressherald.com.