P.E.I. museum plans moving ahead: Vessey

As published by CBC News Friday, August 20, 2010 | 1:36 PM AT

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Tourism and Culture Minister Robert Vessey, shown here in a file photo, met with Summerside city council last week to discuss the possibility of locating the museum there. (Province of P.E.I.)

P.E.I. Tourism and Culture Minister Robert Vessey hopes to go to cabinet in the next couple of months with concrete plans for a provincial museum.

A central provincial heritage museum has been a promise of the provincial Liberals since November 2008.

Vessey met with Summerside's city council last week regarding the possibility of a central museum being built there. The museum system on P.E.I. currently includes multiple sites throughout the province, and each one has a narrow focus such as fisheries and shipbuilding.

Vessey said the Summerside meeting was informal and no decision has been made about the new facility's location.

"We're not there yet," he said. "We're just trying to come up with something that is cost efficient. And I'd like to be able to build or have a museum that's right the first time and be done very cost efficient for Islanders."

Too expensive

Vessey said a consultant came back with an estimated price tag of $50-million, which is more than than the Liberals want to pay for a museum.

Summerside city councillor Vance Bridges said he's doubtful that his city is in the running for the new facility, but said a central museum could still have satellite locations.

"I can't imagine the kind of facility that would be needed in only one location to house all the artifacts that are available," he said.

A government-commissioned report in 2008 said that P.E.I.'s approach to heritage is unfocused and ignores subjects including women's history and archaeological sites.

That report recommended a central museum be opened by 2013.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2010/08/20/pei-central-museum-vessey-584.html#ixzz12eMRu3yU

PEI Blue Whale - Ready to Go on Display in BC

News item regarding the journey of a blue whale, from its resting place on Prince Edward Island to become the centrepiece of the new Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC in Vancouver.

Video of 1987 - Blue Whale on Prince Edward Island Beach

The Prince Edward Island Blue Whale - 1987

Editors Note: This item by email from David Morrow, an interpreter with Parks Canada at Gros Morne, Newfoundland tells of his student days at Holland College, and the efforts by his class to assist whale researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The skeleton of this same PEI whale is now the centrepiece of the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC, in Vancouver
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There was a news item yesterday about the blue whale that washed up on Nail Pond beach (near Skinners Pond, western PEI) in 1987.

My Renewable Resource Technology class at Holland College helped researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution do a necropsy on that whale in 1987. It was a 73ft female that had been struck & killed accidentally by a ship (probably at night, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River). Later, the carcass was buried and a map made showing the burial location.

Many years later, a museum in BC wanted a blue whale skeleton for a new display, so they traveled to PEI to unearth the skeleton. Despite the many years, when they dug up the carcass, much of the soft tissues were still intact (and very smelly) because the whale had been buried in wet sand. The bones were stripped and cleaned and shipped out to BC.

The skeleton has been assembled and mounted for display at the museum. It is the 4th largest skeleton ever displayed and as a blue whale skeleton: the largest animal to have lived on earth (even bigger than the largest dinosaurs!). The news item stated that it will take a month for the adhesives used in mounting the skeleton to dry and set. Then the display will open to the public.

The things I remember best about the necropsy are: the size of the animal (all thirteen members of our class were able to stand on her back with room to spare). The Woods Hole crew had whalers flensing knives, which they used to strip off blubber samples (some toxins get concentrated in fatty tissues) and to open the body cavity for organ collection. When they did this, a gush of putrid gasses rushed out and the smell almost knocked people over!!

Her eyes were very large (dinner plate size), the Woods Hole crowd had collected them and many other tissue samples to see if feeding blue whales were picking up toxins at the St. Lawrence River mouth. I was the only person to have brought chest waders that day, so I was asked to go collect some baleen plates. Her head was out in about 3ft. of water. I had to wade out and walk over her tongue to get at the baleen plates.

There were krill (primary food of blue whales) stuck up in the bristles of baleen! This was part of her last meal! Krill are shrimp-like crustaceans ~1cm-5cm long: it's ironic that the main food of the largest animal to have ever lived on earth is small animal plankton!

There is a great article in a recent Canadian Geographic magazine about the blue whale in Canada. It was a special issue on Canadian wildlife published in Dec 2009.

Dave

A Piece of PEI's Natural Heritage . . . going on display in BC

A natural history treasure - the skeleton of a giant blue whale, which was removed from Prince Edward Island for display in a new centre at the University of British Columbia is nearing completion on its great journey from the sands of PEI to become the centrepiece of the new
Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

Updates from the Blue Whale Project keep track of the progress. The continued progress on the West Coast to ensure that natural history education is available to BC residents helps show the value of this form of education to a research and educational institution like UBC. Sadly their progress once again reminds those of us on the East Coast of our own lack of progress. Islanders have been calling for a natural history museum since 1881. More recently we have seen strong public support for the fulfillment of the natural history mandate of the PEI Museum & Heritage Foundation which was granted in 1983 by the Legislature of PEI - and still not a single employee has been hired. And no plan is in place to begin addressing this mandate.

The Robert Ghiz government was elected on a strong platform that included a commitment to a central provincial museum. While solid progress has been made since on many important issues, the natural history mandate is one that remains untouched. The time to keep sending our valuable artifacts to world class museums around the world is over. The time to tell our story - the story of life on earth - and more particularly life on this very special part of our planet is now.

Birds of Prince Edward Island (1891) by Francis Bain

Now available, thanks to the Internet Archives, the historic Birds of Prince Edward Island : their habits and characteristics (1891) by Francis Bain, as a digital reproduction.

P.E.I. children's museum in planning stages

As published in The Guardian - Feb 1, 2010
CASSANDRA BERNARD
The Guardian

A place for children and their families to go and participate in hands on, educational exhibits may be available to Islanders soon.

The P.E.I. government is funding a study to see if a children’s museum should be considered.
David Keenlyside, executive director of the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation, is a supporter of the idea. He said anything that provides learning for children is a great idea.

“Research is being done to see if we have the resources to create the centre and to sustain it,” he said.

Keenlyside said meetings are coming up soon to start planning for a provincial museum for Prince Edward Island and a children’s museum is something Islanders should have the opportunity to partake in.

“There has been no proposal yet indicating any direction they want to go in, but I will provide whatever resources I can,” he said.

Keenlyside helped set up the Canadian Children’s Museum in Ottawa in the mid 1980s. The museum includes exhibits about how people live in other countries, a house-building exhibit and a playground based on a international port.

“Anything benefiting children and their families should be supported, but can we afford it is the question. It’s in the works we just need to wait to see what they are asking for. Most children centres are educational centres and were not sure what scale they are going for yet.”
Keenlyside said he doesn’t think the Island is in a position to deny the idea; it should have the best learning environments for the children in whatever form that may take.

“Wherever there is a need, that’s where the focus will be. These centres are extensions to schools and provides things kids get excited about and that’s great,” he said.

“Kids coming with their families makes it more positive. A lot of the visitation is from family members such as parents and grandparents; sometimes they feel intimidated to learn but here they have the opportunity. We want to make it better for Islanders.”

However, Keenlyside cautioned that there are no specific details in the planning of a children’s museum yet.