Yes, they are named "whale" in the game files. I asked the other editors and you are right, the name as it appears in-game should take precedence. We will be moving the pages.

Yep, it's EditorID is called "WhaleBeached", it's normal model is named "whaleBeached01" and the exploded model is "whaleBeached02", the explosion effect is called "whaleExplosion" and there is another explosion effect called "whaleSplodeSploshun" that is never used as far as I know.

When you highlight it in workshop mode (only possible with mods like Scrap Everything) it displays "Beached whale" or the equivalent translation.

I'm not very familiar with all the available resources/methods used and so I have a question.

What does- "dolphish" is now the only canonical in-game name for the creature -mean? What criteria determines something to be "canonical"?

Also, as there are many possibilities for quests and such in games spread out over a couple centuries, what material determines what is considered canonical for timeline purposes? FO Bible? Something else?

TIA

In this case, names that actually appear in-game are canon, while ones that are e.g. taken from game files are conjectural and only used until there's an in-game name.