Monday, July 16 . . . Back for More

After talking to Trish and the DFO, we discover that the measurements we took the day before were not enough. We drive back to Forteau, returning to the tail at 5:30 pm when the tide is low and I don’t have to venture into the water again. Rudolph has a sharp knife and helps us cut off a piece of blubber to take back for sampling. The knife cuts right through as though it was a piece of ham not the flesh, blubber, and muscle of a humpback whale. The tail is completely out of the water, so we measure it from the tip of the fluke to where it had been cut. We add 32 inches to our measurement to determine that it was a 28-foot-long humpback—only a baby. Rudolph is stunned when he tries to turn the tail over. He can barely lift it and stares at me as he thinks back to the day before. Sophia then informs us that for every foot of a whale it weighs a ton. The day before I had struggled with two tons through the frigid water in which icebergs float.