Stinky minke: Rotting whale unpleasant for nearby resident

A retired priest in western P.E.I. says a dead minke whale near his home stinks to high heaven, and he's hoping the province can do something about it.

"I hope they come and bury it or take it away or something, because it smells and because it'sa big pollution in the water to start with," Father Eloi Arsenault said. "Seems to be rotting quite quickly."

The whale washed up Monday on a sand bar about 100 metres from his house in St. Crysostome, he said.

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The smell is especially bad when wind blows toward shore, Arsenault added.

Fisheries officials inspected the site Tuesday night and identified the six-metre long carcass as that of a minkewhale.

The P.E.I. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries told CBC News that workers will bury the whale as soon as possible. They say the timing of low tides and a shortage of daylight working hours has made the task challenging.

Minke whales are not an endangered species.

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