The plans to move the beloved Conny the Whale sculpture from the Children’s Museum in West Hartford have changed and only the tail will be moved because it became too expensive to move the whole whale.
The delicate process to remove the tail of the iconic 60-foot long, 20-ton cement whale happened Tuesday and the Cetacean Society International plans to place the tail on the Trout Brook Greenway.
The former Children’s Museum is going to become a new development and the estimates to move the entire whale were at least $250,000.
The Cetacean Society International said the tail was safely removed and placed in storage at the Town of West Hartford’s Public Works facility on Brixton Street.
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They said Continental Properties, the new owners of the former Children’s Museum property, paid for the costs to remove Conny’s tail and transport it.
“After a great deal of consideration, we determined that our original plan to move all of Conny - a 20-ton whale sculpture - was far too costly and technically challenging,” CSI President Jessica Dickens said in a statement. “We believe that by installing Conny’s tail, as if diving away to explore the world’s oceans, on the Trout Brook Greenway, we will be able to continue to honor Conny’s legacy for generations to come and inspire environmental awareness and action.”
Conny was constructed in 1976 to help raise awareness about the plight of whales and the impact of global commercial whaling, according to the Cetacean Society International.
Sperm whales and whaling itself have had a significant role in state history and the sperm whale was designated as the state animal in 1975.
Connecticut ranked second only to Massachusetts in the American whaling industry in the 1800s and the sperm whale was the species most sought after by Connecticut whalers who circled the globe to bring back oil for lamps and other products, according to the state.
Cetacean Society International expects to submit a permit application for installing Conny on the Greenway to the Town later in the Spring.
