Friday, July 14, 2006

Whale Watching off Cape Breton

I'm pretty sure that if you go anywhere near Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Maine, you are required to go on a whale watch. That's OK, as I had never watched a whale.

Mom and I decided on Captain Zodiac Whale Cruises out of Cheticamp. We saw both Minke whales and pilot whales on our trip.

Upper right is a Minke whale tail. These whales are pretty quick and don't stay at the surface for very long. I am not very quick, so only caught the tail in a picture.

Later in the cruise, our captain found a whole pod of pilot whales. We could see 5 of them at once. Sometimes it seemed like they were almost close enough to reach out and touch them.

I mentioned earlier that whale watching appears to be a required tourist activity. To be honest, I often run from such things. In this case, I would definitely go on another one. Especially on a Zodiac, where you can pretend you're bombing around with Jacques Cousteau!

3 comments:

Mouse said...

How beautiful! What a treat to get to see whales! I do believe it is a requirement of a tourist in those areas.. but its still a toss up on whether you will actually SEE anything while you're out on one of those boats.

Desperate Housewife said...

I've lived in NB most of my life and I've never seen a whale. It makes me feel like a bad Maritimer. I also can't swim.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, the tourist activity is just...well...the right thing.

It's an awesome (in the old sense of the word) experience to see something like a pod of whales. You were lucky to have such a successful watch.

Thanks for sharing the photos!