Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Part VII: Whale Report Day Nine

It's been nine days since I've been in Tadoussac and I am ashamed to admit I hadn't seen a whale. I mean this is Tadoussac, land of the whales. They have paintings of whales, statues of whales and even a car that has been turned into a whale (think Harry's sheepdog van in Dumb and Dumber). So today I decided to tempt fate, tip the scales in my favour, rig the deck so to speak. I went on a very work-related whale watching tour.

It was a strange morning in Tadoussac. The hill where the house had blue skies and bright sunshine. Down by the water where the office is was pure fog. I decided to go anyways, what's a little fog when it's time for adventure?

Well apparantly a lot actually. Out on the water in the fog was freezing cold at 9:30 AM. Visibility sucked but what killed was the wind. I'm so glad I brought a tuque and my Olympic mitts. The sunglasses were kind of unnessecary. The sun wasn't getting through that layer of fog. So we started out on the hunt for whales. I felt like captain Ahab, except a girl, and with a camera instead of a harpoon, and I didn't want to kill the whales. Anyways, a full hour passed before the fog lifted. We left at 9:30, by 10:15 I was soaked but still loving it. I felt very sneaky in the fog.

Once the sun came out, it was beautiful. We passed the Tadoussac sand dunes- dunes that are about 70 ft. high, people used to ski on them- and lots of capes and inlets, but still no whales.

Now at this point I'm thinking, "wow, I just wasted some government money on this trip, at least I have some nice shots of blue water against blue sky," when I hear a splash to my right. Everyone on the boat started freaking out. Finally- a... seal. Damn it.

As we approached Tadoussac Bay to go into the fjord we finally saw them. A pod of belugas coming up for air. They were beautiful, slick white backs glinting in the sunlight. They came right under our boat! It was truly amazing. Unfortunately I have no photos because I was shooting them with the video camera.

We saw another pod of belugas and a minke whale. As we were watching these beautiful creatures, I couldn't help but feeling a little uncomfortable about the whole experience. I mean here we are on these boats, invading the whale's space and all gawking at it. It felt somehow cheap and contrived. I think next time I'm going to go with a kayak company. It feels more natural, like the whales might not get freaked out by all the noise and turbines etc...

Despite this feeling, I marvelled at the creatures. It's no wonder Tadoussac is such a tourist hotspot.

Then we entered the fjord. Beautiful. The waters under the boat are as deep as the cliffs surrounding them are high (how's that for an SAT question). This fjord was carved by a glacier which left a huge underwater valley, almost 300 m deep in some places. Combined with the 4 degree water, it is whale haven here. Food, freezing temperatures and a fun underwater valley to explore- what more could a whale want.

The tour took about three hours to complete and by the end the sun was shining, people were happy and so was I. I hope I got some good whale shots but I have yet to go over my footage.

In terms of shooting the big boats are good because they are really stable and you can set up the tripod but they are crowded and often you'll get people's arms and hands in your perfectly composed shot.

So I've finally seen some of these elusive whales. I was starting to wonder if they were more myth than reality. A successful day hwhale hwatching (Sean).


No whales here!



Sue me, my pictures suck. There's a beluga.



Me, duh.

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