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Whale of a Tale: Brier Island, N.S, fisherman collects skeleton of dead humpback

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Jess Tudor is giving new meaning to a “whale of a tale.”

Known as the “whale bone hunter,” the Brier Island, N.S., fisherman has a long family history of collecting bones from the ocean creatures.

This summer, he collected a near-complete skeleton of a dead juvenile humpback whale – 150 bones to be exact – which are now on display in his front driveway.

“This is my sixth whale, so there’s been a lot of trial and error,” Jess said.

The whale was beginning to decompose when it was first spotted on July 4, but it took nearly two weeks for it to wash ashore near Freeport, N.S.

“It took about 15 kilometres of beach-combing to find it,” Jess explained.

Then came the painstaking task of stripping the flesh off the bloated humpback carcass.

Carrying the bones back to his car over a five-kilometre round-trip journey, it took nearly 50 trips over a 45 day period in the middle of a heat wave.

“I personally only use a two-and-a-half inch knife blade, so I can essentially take apart a whole whale when generally people will need large trucks, cranes and other things for,” said Jess.

However, the biggest task was transporting the skull. Weighing well over 300 pounds, he needed a hydraulic lift and a boat to remove it from the shore.

Amy Tudor, who works for Mariner Cruises Whale and Seabird Tours, had just returned home from a trip at sea when she heard about her husband’s latest endeavour.

“I came up the wharf stairs to find my minivan with this giant whale skull perched a top of it,” Amy said. “Some women get flowers, some women get jewellery and I get a whale skull!”

The Tudors believe the whale was a victim of a large ship strike.

“One of the bones, the scapula, has a gigantic chunk taken out of it,” Amy explained. “Entanglements don’t break bones like that, predator strikes don’t break bones like that -- only ship strikes do.”

It’s a misconception they feel is plaguing their industries.

“When you hear ship strike, it’s not the small fishing boats that my husband goes on, or that I go on when whale watching,” Amy explained. “We’re talking massive vessels like cruises and container ships."

Jess and Amy want to raise awareness that fisherman have risked their lives disentangling whales.

The family plans to use the bones to create an art installation in honour of Joe Howlett, a member of the Campobello Whale Rescue Team who died freeing an entangled North Atlantic Right Whale in 2017.

“Many of the lobster fisherman down here are the ones who are trained to disentangle whales,” Jess said. “It’s a story that needs to be told.”

For now, there’s nearly a year’s worth of preservation work ahead -- pressure washing and drying the bones, as well as extracting the oil.

Tourists and locals from far and wide have been stopping by to see the skeleton.

“It’s garnered international attention,” Amy said.

“The fact about whales is that you have to be so far back to be able to observe them on the water, but here, they can actually pick up a whale rib if they wanted to,” Jess said.

Onlookers are getting the chance to witness the true magnitude of these creatures, while meeting the fisherman determined to share their magnificence.

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