Marine Mammal Interpretation Center in Tadoussac

The campground we are staying at is located in a fantastic place, the sites are fair sized and they have 3 hook-ups. Well, the power is running high in voltage so most of the time we stay unplugged, especially when sleeping and not here. We have a surge protector built in for the motorhome but Mom doesn’t feel like playing risk. The campground says there is no problem. Whatever. So last night was chilly and rainy and we survived. This morning was much the same so we got a slow start.

We went to back to Tadoussac today to visit the Centre D’Interpretation des Mammiferes Marins (CIMM), or the Marine Mammal Interpretation Center. They had an impressive display of whale skeletons, baleen and teeth.  We were given a book in English to help guide our way though all the French signs.
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Learning the differences in baleen.

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Minke whale skeleton. We learned about the vestigial bones that the whales have where legs would have been long ago.

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We learned that a Minke whale has a four foot long penis! Oh boy, the birds and the bees. We learned a lot about how the whales breed, incubate and then raise their calfs.

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We all liked the display on whale sounds and how as we get older our range of hearing decreases. Mom covered the information and we all took the test separately without the others looking. Mom tested about 35 years old, B tested at 10 and E tested a bit better than B but there was no age marking under 10years old.

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We watched a rather long movie about the whales of the St. Lawrence. We had to wear headphones to have the track in English.

After the program we headed outside to watch for whales from the rocks. The wind is really strong today so we were told that the belugas likely would head upstream for more protection from the winds. The same would be true of the minke and fin along the coast. They head further out to water during high winds near shore.

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We had fun looking in all the tide pools in the rocks.

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We grabbed a few groceries at the gas station (SO looking forward to Publix again) and came back to journal and do laundry. The campground has one washed and one dryer and they are by far the most expensive we have seen on our trip at 3$ for each. The washer was good and the dryer started out great and they died halfway through the cycle. Mom grabbed the laundry and is trying to dry it on our towel rack in the cross breeze of the motorhome. We aren’t allowed to put up clothes lines here.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day whale watching up the coast in Tadoussac again. This will be our last day on the saltwater for our trip. We head inland and then towards Montreal in the next few days. We have really enjoyed the marine life and are sad to say goodbye to it. FOR NOW!

 

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