When the value of whale oil fell in the nineteenth century many whalers did not even bother to flense the animals they killed, contenting themselves with cutting out the valuable whalebone, then discarding the rest of the carcass. Once the individual pieces of baleen were removed from the jaw they had to be carefully washed, which is what the men are doing in this photograph.
Courtesy: National Photography Collection, Public Archives of Canada (C-23654)
