Bar Harbor - Some college students in Bar Harbor are on a whale of an assignment.

We want to warn you that some of the video that goes along with this report is graphic.


It's definitely not what you'd expect to see people doing on a beach.

" This is volunteer, but I am so willing to volunteer, " said Erickson Smith, a student at College of the Atlantic.

For Smith, he wouldn't want his beach day to go any other way.

" I would much rather get absolutely filthy than stand back with a clipboard or a camera," said Smith.

Smith, along with other College of the Atlantic students and members of Allied Whale, the college's marine mammal research group, are getting a rare opportunity.

" This is a 50-foot male sperm whale that was found dead floating off Schoodic Point," said Sean Tood, director of Allied Whale.

Researchers are performing a necropsy to learn more about the animal, and possibly, how it died.

" These animals start to rot the minute they die. The blubber jacket that they wear is so effective that the heat will build up inside of them and they will cook and as it cooks it will destroy any evidence we might be able to use," explained Todd.

For the students helping out, it's a much better lesson than one learned inside a classroom.

" The blubber is something else. It's thick and it's heavy and you don't realize how big a piece you're cutting off until you cut through it and you get weighed down by it," said Smith.

" The students here are learning how to cut. They're also learning about the anatomy of the animal, necropsy techniques, they're seeing organs up close and personal," added Todd.

Even spectators stopped by the beach to watch the necropsy.

" It's just really cool to be here and just to see all the whale stuff," said Sara Todd.

It's not for everyone. The smell is pretty bad and it's hard work, but for these students and researchers, it's just another day at the beach.


The whale weighs an estimated 50 tons, that's 100,000 pounds.

It will take months for results to come back on the necropsy.

After the research is done, the skeleton will be put back together and displayed at the Bar Harbor Whale Museum.

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