SITKA, ALASKA
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:””;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
For this year’s Alaska Day parade, volunteers with Sitka Whalefest put together a 50-foot life-sized replica of a humpback whale. It was carried in the parade by about 20 people, including Richard Nelson, host of the syndicated radio nature program “Encounters.”
“I am so close to this whale right now I can practically reach out and touch it,” Nelson said, spoofing his trademark narration. “Ah! I actually touched this whale. It’s unbelievable. It feels almost like … a tarp.”
Tarp and PVC pipe made up most of the whale, which, fin-to-fin stretched almost completely across Sitka’s main downtown thoroughfare. Whalefest executive director Holly Keen says the original idea was to do something fun and simple for the Alaska Day parade.
“And I was thinking small,” Keen said. “I was thinking more like the Chinese dragon theory. A couple sticks, parachute material, maybe five board members underneath.”
But volunteers had other ideas, and along came Domino, named after a real whale who frequents Sitka Sound.
A real whale weighs about a ton per foot, so for a humpback, that’s 40 to 50 tons, on average. This particular whale is much, much lighter, but still no easy carry, especially for the length of a whole parade.
Domino’s fluke is painted in the exact same pattern as his real-life counterpart, and someone is inside with a spray bottle, shooting mist from his blowhole.
Because his skin is made of black tarp, the volunteers inside can’t see. So they rely on people outside to know where to move Domino. And who better to steer a whale than whale biologist Jan Straley. Before the parade, she gave her biological assessment.
“This whale’s looking pretty good,” Straley said. “It’s got nice flippers, it has some beautiful flukes and it’s got really good skin.”
Domino made it through the parade, though slowly. There was a huge gap in front of him. But then, this was the first rehearsal and the performance for these volunteers and, of course, whales aren’t used to marching.
© Copyright 1970, Raven Radio Foundation Inc.
