VANCOUVER — Never mind the Internet. A Vancouver mother and schoolteacher is sounding the alarm after stumbling upon another medium that she thinks may corrupt young and impressionable minds: 19th-century “whale bone porn.” 
 
 Ann Pimentel raised the concern — and coined the unlikely phrase — after visiting the Vancouver Maritime Museum (VMM), a modest institution on the city’s west side. That’s where a small collection of etchings and engravings on whale teeth and bone is on display, part of a larger show that also features example of maritime tattoo art. 
 
 Nine of the etched pieces on display show images of a sexual nature, some of them quite explicit. “A Whaler’s Hope of the First Night Ashore” is etched across a tooth that’s eight inches long, extracted two centuries ago from an unfortunate sperm whale. Underneath the title is etched a saucy scene. A man and a woman, flesh exposed. Mouths open, limbs entwined. You get the idea. 
 
 Lust was a common theme in 19th-century scrimshaw, which is what this obscure art form — etchings on hard surfaces culled from sea creatures — is called. Scrimshaw was typically made by lonely whalers, trapped for months aboard ships that scoured the South Pacific for their prey, usually sperm whales, magnificent, 50-foot long creatures prized for their oil. 
 
 The whalers had idle hands and feverish minds. Scrimshawing was their means of expression, their release valve. Using ship-made hand tools and tobacco juice for ink, they set upon whale leftovers. Some of their work is finely detailed. Some is undeniably erotic. 
 
 The VMM has collected scrimshaw for years — most of the work was donated — but the pieces were rarely if ever displayed. Museum curator Patricia Owen said the opportunity arose when staff decided to present a show about maritime tattoos; it seemed natural to compare and contrast the two art forms. Tattoo and Scrimshaw: The Art of the Sailor opened last week and runs to mid-October. 
 
 To date, Ms. Pimentel is the only person to complain. She has mounted a minor jihad, writing missives on various tourist-oriented websites and approaching local media outlets. “I am disturbed and troubled after a morning at the Vancouver Maritime Museum,” she wrote on Tripadvisor.com. 
 
 “The Museum have [sic] a new exhibit called Scrimshaw which features numerous images of inappropriate nature (oral sex, sex, nudity, male anatomy etc.) on tusks. … As a mother and a teacher I was extremely disturbed and believe these pieces of ‘art’ should be removed.” 
 
 Ms. Pimentel told the Vancouver Sun that her two small children — aged two and three — were needlessly exposed to the disturbing “whale bone porn.” No advance warnings were made to sensitive patrons outside the display room, she complained. 
 
 But the nine pieces with sexual content are displayed in a case raised high off the floor, well beyond scope of a toddler’s inquisitive eyes, and lighting is prudishly dim. Next to the display is a sign: “Hide Your Eyes! These pieces of scrimshaw are not intended for children.” 
 
 Ms. Owen says the VMM anticipated that some concerns might be raised, hence the care taken with presentation. The museum has “more graphic” examples of scrimshaw, she says, but these remain hidden downstairs in the museum’s basement. They include depictions of creative candlestick use and what Ms. Owen cautiously describes as “the act.” They will likely never see the light of day. 
 
 That may not satisfy Ms. Pimentel. The sexy scrimshaw that’s now on view “needs to be in an isolated room, it needs to be clearly marked, where a child or anyone under 18 can’t see them,” she told the Vancouver Sun. 
 
 Ironically, Ms. Pimentel’s one-woman crusade has created more interest in the VMM show than the museum could have mustered on its own. There’s a further irony, a real controversy that involves the collection, after all. A small underground trade exists in whale bone porn, some of it very disturbing indeed. Ms. Owen says her museum can’t guarantee that all of its scrimshaw is from genuine 19th-century whale; some pieces may have been crafted more recently, by unscrupulous artisans and fakers, and then made to appear “aged.” 
 
 National Post 
 
 • Email: bhutchinson@nationalpost.com | Twitter: hutchwriter ||||| New York (CNN) -- A video that features ants crawling over a crucifix has gone on display at a New York gallery -- after it was banned from a Smithsonian museum -- raising questions over the boundaries of freedom of expression in a city known for its art. 
 
 The exhibit, entitled "A Fire in My Belly, A Work in Progress," was produced by David Wojnarowicz, who died in 1992 after suffering from AIDS. 
 
 It began screening Saturday at the New Museum, which is devoted exclusively to contemporary art, according to the museum website. 
 
 The complete video is over 30 minutes long and includes graphic sexual content -- including masturbation and full frontal nudity -- and has renewed opposition from religious groups offended by the depiction of Jesus covered by insects. 
 
 "I think that in the artistic community, directors, curators are tremendously insensitive to Christians, they respond by claiming victim status and I find it appalling," said Catholic League President Bill Donohue. "You can't make fun of the Holocaust, you can't make fun of black slavery..... and you can't even depict anything about Mohammed." 
 
 The video was recently removed from a Smithsonian exhibit after Donohue led protests against it and petitioned Congress to cut the institution's funding after it presented the video. 
 
 "The New Museum has always defended freedom of expression and continues to oppose censorship," said museum director 
 
 Lisa Phillips in a written statement. "We cannot afford to take hard won civil liberties for granted and need to remain vigilant and protect artistic freedom." 
 
 The move prompted dozens of art galleries to request the rights to show the video, said Wendy Olsoff, co-owner of the P.P.O.W. Gallery, which holds the rights to the video. 
 
 "I think it was a bad decision, poor judgment," she said. "Someone who didn't see it, called it in, put pressure and they pulled it. If you pull one piece how do you know another wouldn't be pulled. That's censorship." 
 
 The video is currently displayed in the museum's lobby and can be viewed free of charge. ||||| ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 An international investigation has led to pornography and Internet luring charges against a Dutch man in connection with the cyberbullying of Canadian teen Amanda Todd, who committed suicide. 
 
 The 35-year-old man is charged with extortion, luring, criminal harassment, and possession and distribution of child pornography for the purpose of distribution, said Canadian justice and RCMP officials on Thursday. 
 
 He is currently in custody in the Netherlands, where he faces similar charges. Canadian officials, who are not identifying the suspect to protect the ongoing Dutch investigation, will be applying to extradite him. 
 
 UPDATE: While the RCMP does not want to release a name, court documents have identified the suspect as Aydin Coban. 
 
 Todd, 15, made online sexual exploitation an international issue in 2012 after she killed herself in her Port Coquitlam, B.C. home following years of cyberbullying. A month before her death, she posted a haunting YouTube video chronicling how she exposed herself via webcam, and those images were saved by someone online, and subsequently used to stalk and harass her. 
 
 Dutch officials would not confirm one of the alleged victims is Todd, but the teen was identified by Dutch media outlets Omroep Brabant and BN De Stem. 
 
 "This is truly a day that we have been waiting for," an emotional Carol Todd, Amanda's mother, told reporters in B.C. 
 
 Other Canadian children have been identified as possible victims of the same suspect, said Insp. Bob Resch with the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre. 
 
 "All the police forces and jurisdictions where those victims are located have been notified and been in contact with those victims and have advanced their investigations accordingly," said Resch, according to CBC News. 
 
 Story continues after slideshow: 
 
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 The suspect, who is a dual Dutch and Turkish citizen, has been in detention since he was arrested in January in a vacation house the town of Oisterwijk. He lived alone, and has no wife or children. 
 
 He's accused of convincing underage girls to "perform sexual acts in front of a webcam," and then pressuring them to make new material, said prosecutors in a statement. 
 
 The suspect is also thought to have blackmailed adult men in a similar fashion. It's alleged he pretended to be an underage boy and persuaded men to perform sexual acts on camera, then threatened to turn the images over to police. 
 
 In the Netherlands, he is charged with production and dissemination of child pornography, computer intrusion, indecent assault, fraud, and possession of hard drugs. 
 
 Lawyer Christian Van Dijk said he doesn't believe prosecutors have sufficient evidence to convict his client. He added that even if there is evidence of unlawful activity on the suspect's computer, it may have been hacked. 
 
 "Prosecutors seem to think they have a big fish here, but if I see the evidence, it's not much," he said. "Lots of references to IP addresses and such." 
 
 Authorities in the United States, United Kingdom, and Norway are also involved in the investigation. 
 
 The suspect has not yet entered a plea. "He's exercising his right to remain silent," said Van Dijk. 
 
 With files from The Canadian Press
– A school teacher has launched a personal campaign against what she calls "whale bone porn"—etchings of naughty acts on whale teeth and bone on display at a Vancouver museum, the National Post reports. The Vancouver Maritime Museum has "a new exhibit called Scrimshaw which features numerous images of inappropriate nature (oral sex, sex, nudity, male anatomy etc.) on tusks," writes Ann Pimentel on Tripadvisor. "As a mother and a teacher I was extremely disturbed and believe these pieces of ‘art’ should be removed." But her campaign—which she took to the Vancouver Sun and Yelp—has only aroused greater interest in the scrimshaw, a 19-century art form practiced by lonely whalers in the South Pacific. They vented their frustrations by using hand tools to engrave tobacco juice on whale leftovers. The museum's curator says she won't remove the display, but admits there are raunchier scrimshaw works in the basement that she'll never bring up—because they depict a candlestick being used in what she politely calls "the act."