Tourists from France are going home with a whale of a tale, after an incredible encounter in the St. Lawrence River near Tadoussac, Quebec on Sunday, July 31st.
Eric Mouellic, in Quebec on a first visit to Canada with his family, posted three videos of the experience to YouTube.
The group in the Zodiac-like inflatable boat, got a close-up of a finwhale, the second largest mammal on the planet. “We were really lucky,” said Mouellic in an interview with CBC News via email. “Within 15 minutes of our departure, we saw porpoises, seals, belugas and several finback whales.”
“But it was, in fact, magic”
“It was already marvelous. Then there were these two finbacks, one of which passed under the Zodiac without touching the boat.” For a moment, Mouellic admitted to being afraid, “But it was, in fact, magic” he said.
The town of Tadoussac is located at the mouth of the Saguenay River as it pours into the larger St. Lawrence River. The rivers are part of the vast conservation area known as The Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park. Co-managed by the federal and Quebec governments, it is one of the world’s great whale-watching sites.
Whale-watching boat operators are members of the Eco-Whale Alliance. They’ve signed an agreement committing to practice responsible boating in the area, which includes keeping their distance from the marine mammals to avoid disturbing them and to keep from colliding with them.
Patrice Corbeil, the education director of the Groupe de recherche et d’éducation sur les mammifères marins (GREMM), a non-profit marine mammal research and interpretation centre based in Tadoussac. He said, “The whales don’t know the rules!”
“All the whales come here for one reason: They come here to feed,” Corbeil said. “This one was probably feeding on krill.” which are the tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that can be brought to the surface in big numbers in an upswell.
“The finback needs to eat one to two tonnes a day,” Corbeil says the people in the boat were not in danger. “You notice that the whale avoided hurting the boat. They don’t like to hit anything on the surface. That’s why the whale turned … on its side. Right on the surface, you can see just how big it is — 18 metres long, 50 tonnes in weight.”
“It’s really, really huge.”
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