While our marine natural history museum is tiny, we pack as much as possible into it. You are greeted by volunteers and students who live on Grand Manan or come to the island to help and to learn about marine mammals at the same time. The museum is named in honour of the late Dr. David Gaskin, the founder and Executive Director of the GMWSRS from 1981-1998.

Our displays cover aspects of marine mammals such as feeding, anatomy, physiology, behaviour and life history through photographs and drawings. We have on display actual skeletons and other specimens salvaged by our researchers over the years. The skeletons have been prepared by us from scratch - and remember the bones don't come with instructions. Complete skeletons include a minke whale, white-sided dolphin, harbour porpoise and grey seal, with more planned. We also have a life size model of a humpback flipper, examples of baleen, a taxidermied river otter and harp seal pup, and other assorted bones. 

Our seashore display helps to identify the mysterious finds while beach combing - the highlights are a LARGE lobster and a bluefin tuna skull. 

We also have information about what we do, including work in progress, and a small amount about seabirds and geology.  Free information sheets and other pamphlets are also available and "Rainy/foggy" day activities including videos, recorded sounds.  More complete displays on birds and geology can be found at the Grand Manan Museum. 

In the summer of 2002 we began a major renovation of the museum.  Thanks to all who braved the "construction site".  The funding for this renovation was provided by generous donations to the GMWSRS, Environment Canada Habitat Stewardship Program and the New Brunswick Environmental Network.

Museum Hours: Usually 9AM-5PM DAILY from mid-June to early October, but this depends upon our research obligations and availability of staff. To arrange for a personalized tour send us an email and we will do our best.

Fees: While we do not charge to view our facility, donations are greatly appreciated and help us keep our doors open. We issue tax receipts when requested.  Visiting our gift shop also helps us fund our programs and the museum.

Comments from our guest book

About our Museum:
 

"absolutely superb"	"I loved the whales"       "Fantastic"
"Great"      "Awesome"	"Excellent"            "Fabulous"
"Cool"       "informative"	"Very nice display"         "Well done"
"WOW"      "Good work"	"Thanks for the great work"
"4th visit - thank you"	"Interesting - I like it"

About Grand Manan: "A great get-away"  "Beautiful, calm and peaceful. A perfect get away"  "Beautiful scenery"

With comments like that it is hard not to feel comfortable that we are on the right track. 

Our collections are "salvaged" from organisms that have died for a variety of reasons.  With the exception of a few invertebrates, we do not deliberately collect live specimens.

For more information about flora and fauna in the Grand Manan archipelago check out our Marine Natural History pages:

Gift Shop 
Come to Grand Manan and visit our tiny gift shop for a variety of products with whales and marine life including puffins, as the theme. We buy local maritime crafts wherever possible but also have a wide range of carefully selected distributors to find those rare whale-themed items.  By purchasing our products you will be supporting our research and keeping our doors open. All proceeds go directly back into our operating fund.  We accept both Canadian and US currency, VISA and Mastercard.

We do not offer an online shopping service but contact us if you can't visit our shop. We may be able to ship some items.