Skeletons Moved to Tadoussac’s Marine Mammal Interpretation Centre

Kayaks and snowmobiles are parked next to giant rib cages and vertebrae the size of soccer balls. Pectoral fins as tall as you and me lean against the wall, while a humpback skull grinning a row of baleen sits atop a table.

It is here that, for almost two years, professional handyman Patrick Bérubé and GREMM senior naturalist Michel Martin patiently cleaned and assembled ribs, vertebrae and metatarsals. Painstaking work, the progress of which we documented in our field notes in January 2019 and January 2020.

Orchestrating the comings and goings of the various carts, the two companions push some of the larger pieces onto the trailer. With the space quickly filled up by the enormous bones, it will take two more trips to bring back the skeletons in their entirety.

Then comes the tricky part: safely securing everything! “Our biggest fear is if something should get lost or fall onto the road!” confides Michel Martin.

It is 2 in the afternoon when the curious-looking convoy finally pulls out onto the paved highway. The white ghosts wobbling along behind the pickup cause a few cars to slow down or passers-by to stop and stare. But everything arrives safe and sound at the entrance to the Interpretation Centre on the banks of the Saguenay.

One by one, the pieces enter the CIMM’s future showroom, which is still under construction. They join the many other skeletons already present: sperm whale, minke whale, beaked whale, porpoise, beluga, etc.

“Our work is far from over,” Patrick reminds me. We still have to hang and securely fasten them, finish the assembly, and screw the ribs of the right whale in one by one, which we had to remove to get them through the doors.”

Piper the North Atlantic right whale is also handled with special care. In order to be able to attach its long, heavy baleen (weighing approx. 270 kg) to its jaw, CIMM sought the expertise of taxidermists from Bilodeau Canada, based in Normandin (Lac-Saint-Jean region). They designed an aluminum and Teflon support, final testing of which is currently being carried out in their workshops.