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An inlet off the small community of Port Hilford on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore has been chosen by a U.S. group as the preferred location for its whale sanctuary.

"The Whale Sanctuary Project has announced that it will work together with Sherbrooke and the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia to create a seaside sanctuary in Port Hilford for whales being retired from entertainment parks," the organization announced in a news release Tuesday.

“Of the hundreds of locations that we’ve researched in British Columbia, Washington state and Nova Scotia, Port Hilford stands out as the premier location for a whale sanctuary,” said executive director Charles Vinick.

The sanctuary wants to have the sanctuary ready to receive whales by the end of 2021.

"Port Hilford offers an expansive area that can be netted off for the whales in a bay that’s open to the ocean but is sheltered from storms," the release said. "It has access to necessary infrastructure and plenty of room along the shore for the facilities that will be needed to care for the animals, as well as for an onsite education and interpretive center."

The sanctuary plans to work with schools and museums to offer educational programs about the sanctuary whales and their counterparts in the wild.

The sanctuary will be funded through private donations.

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