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     A whole of a tail 
     
    
   
   
    
     BY EVELYN MEADER; ILLUSTRATION BY SUSAN STEPHENSON 
     
    
   
   
    
     Both beachcombers and beach strollers find plenty to enjoy on the 
     
     shores of P.E.I. In November or 1987 the biggest natural find of all 
     
     time appeared on the beach at Norway, near Tignish — a huge blue whale 
     
     body, all 78 feet, 80 tons of it (now that is really a case of being 
     
     "all washed up"). the rare creature, largest of all mammals, twice the 
     
     size of the biggest dinosaur, attracted school bus loads of students, 
     
     carloads of the curious, including Barb Currie and me, and vans of 
     
     scientists. 
     
    

    
     The big blue mammal, upside down, unrecognizable tongue draped 
     
     across waters like shapeless drapery lining, uneven black baleen stick— 
     
     ing up from the overturned jaw like old water-stained dock piles, was 
     
     because of its very size and known rarity worthy of awe. The might 
     
     beast had drifted ashore like any other litter of the sea, but even 
     
     dead with mouth ajar it was impressive. 
     
    

    
     Its beaching stirred much interest. Students came from the Institute 
     
     of the Environment in Bar Harbour, Maine. Businesses in Tignish exper— 
     
     ienced a "whale boom". The powers that be had to arrange for its burial — 
     
     nobody wanted a big stink. Luckily cool November weather provided some 
     
     natural refrigeration. 
     
    

    
     On the cold windy shore we noticed long strips of very thin, dark 
     
     skin that looked like pieces of plastic garbage bag. the students had 
     
     peeled off the skin to better check the blubber layer. The blubber right 
     
     under the paper thin skin was a dusky blue, the same colour as our great 
     
     blue heron. The whale's length can be divided, one-third jaw, one-third 
     
     body and one-third tail, the end fins of which are called a fluke. 
     
    

    
     It is indeed "flukey" that this larges of the monsters of the deep 
     
     uses its huge jaw, spreading tongue and straining baleen to survive on 
     
     the sea's TINIEST creatures, krill and other plankton. 
     
    

    
     I learned the whale can stay submerged for over an hour, sometimes 
     
    
   
   
    
     two. It surfaces and "blows" to expel water, then takes in air. The 
     
     nostrils, on top of the head, form to blow hole. A baby blue measures 20 
     
     feet, weighs 2 tons and drinks 200 lb. of rich whale milk daily. :30; 
     
    
   
   
    
     _ 3 _