Workers are completing excavation and preparing the staging area for the buildings and marine operations area
We’re delighted to let you know that construction is now underway at the Whale Sanctuary site in Nova Scotia.
With power and internet now installed, next steps include replacing the old wooden dock area and preparing the staging area with 3,500 tons of rock and soil that will raise the level of the whole building site by about half a meter. This will provide extra stability, along with long-term protection from potential effects of climate change in the years ahead.
In the video below, you can see two excavators at work. Our CEO, Charles Vinick, explains the work they’re doing and where the buildings will be.
The main building will include the veterinary suite, animal care areas, and food preparation area where we thaw and clean the fish for the whales, as well as all the administrative areas, research areas, and a dive locker for the team and security.
Another building will be for the net loft, boat operations, and all the marine ops that we’ll be doing to support the team members who will be working with the whales.
Over the next few weeks, in this first phase of construction as shown in the video, the whole of the old wooden dock area will be replaced as we prepare the site for the foundations for the buildings. Another area of the wharf will have a slipway where we can put small boats directly into the bay – jet-powered boats without propellers so that there’s no impact or no potential harm for the whales.
You have made all this work possible
It’s been a long haul getting to the point where we can now actively begin construction. Your support has made it all possible and we couldn’t have done it without you:
- Two full years of site search on both coasts of North America;
- Four years of mandatory environmental testing and surveys;
- Ongoing consultations with federal, provincial, local and first nation governments, leading to an Order in Council to issue the lease for the sanctuary waters.
And close to another year before the lease was finally signed by all parties.
Your continuing support will help us finish the reconstruction of the wharf and site preparation for the foundations by the end of this year.
Raising the rest of the capital funds to complete the sanctuary
Once the wharf re-construction and foundation preparation are completed, the next steps will include fabrication of the perimeter net that will surround the sanctuary waters, along with the bay pen that will serve as the initial care and observation facility for the newly arrived whales as they acclimate to their ocean environment.
We are now seeking to raise the full capital funds for these next steps: fabricating and installing the perimeter net and the bay pen.
If you are in a position to help with that, please reach out to us.
Meanwhile, we look forward to bringing you regular updates on progress at the sanctuary site.
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