While the Whale Sanctuary Project team is hard at work to complete the sanctuary and welcome its first whales, I lead our enthusiastic group of local volunteers who tirelessly spread the word about the project by putting on local events and maintaining the operations of our Visitors Centre. This past Saturday, June 1st, the Whale Sanctuary Project and St. Mary’s Municipality co-hosted the first-ever St. Mary’s Ocean Day Celebration.

As part of World Ocean Day, Saturday’s event celebrated all things ocean, including science, conservation, and community. Close to 500 people gathered in and around a big blue tent at the Whale Sanctuary Visitors Centre in Sherbrooke. There were ocean-themed games and face painting, artifacts to explore and ocean experts to meet. There was also giant walkable map of Canada’s seafloor and an immersive 360-degree video experience where visitors could experience the sense of walking underwater.

With St. Mary’s being a coastal community, the ocean plays a big role in our own lives as well as the lives of the whales we seek to help. While we continue our work to complete the sanctuary, our local team of volunteers will keep on spreading the word at events like Ocean Day.

Ocean Week Canada takes place from June 1-9. The Whale Sanctuary Project will have team members and volunteers at other Nova Scotia events in Halifax and Antigonish on Saturday June 8th. For more information and attendance details, visit https://oceanweekcan.ca/events/.

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I was part of the Free Willy generation, the movement that got children involved globally to help the orca Keiko. Since the beginning of my involvement with the Whale Sanctuary Project, I have wanted to share with the local children not only my love for whales but also the importance of a sanctuary. I am a big believer that children learn through play. And now, with COVID-19 restrictions beginning to lift in our region and everyone in need of a little pick-me-up, it seemed like the perfect time to hold a whale camp for young people and their families.

So, I put it together with my friend and colleague Amanda Babin, the Whale Sanctuary Project’s environmental analyst, and it was wonderful to see so many locals come out and enjoy a fun and educational afternoon. Throughout the event I had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with the children. I listened to what they had to say, saw their beautiful artwork, and answered their questions.

That evening, I sat in awe of the conversations I’d had with them. One seven-year-old boy, for example, had told me: “When you are old, I will make sure the whales are looked after because everyone should help each other out.” It made me smile that his wanting to help had no limits and that it made no difference to him whether someone is human or cetacean.

Our children are growing up in a time when science is telling us that keeping these animals in concrete tanks is not only an injustice but in many ways a death sentence. It’s black-and-white to these young people that the whales are not happy or healthy, so they shouldn’t be kept in those situations. The wisdom and feelings these young people shared with me reinforced what I have known from the first time I heard about Port Hilford being considered as a possible location: that Guysborough County, Nova Scotia has what is needed to help a sanctuary thrive.

It was my generation that rallied to bring the sanctuary to Port Hilford, and it will be their generation that eventually takes over and keeps it going. We can all rest easy knowing that the whales who are our future neighbors will be in the best possible hands: hands that are guided by science and led by the heart!

Amy Simon is the Whale Sanctuary Project’s communications assistant in the Port Hilford area. She lives in nearby Aspen, Nova Scotia, where she volunteers with a number of animal rescues and does some rehabilitation at her own home. She is an early childhood educator and a certified medical lab assistant.

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