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Published: April 17th 2008
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What a fluke...sorry couldnt resist
This was from when we went Whale Watching... So here's the plan. Whale watching... what could be wrong with that? No flaws so far...
It’s decided. Today -finally- we're going to Vancouver Island and from there go Grey Whale watching off the islands in a zodiac which yeah, sounded great. But here’s the catch, I'm terrified of being in the sea on a boat out of I'm sight of land, and of fish... what a time to find out, when your on a zodiac out of sight of land, surrounded by whopping great big fish, otherwise known as whales. I'd say the timing was nothing short of fantastic wouldn’t you?
And yes, I am perfectly aware that whales are not fish and they are in fact mammals, part of the Cetacean family, with their scientific name being Eschrichtius robustus(which I still cant pronounce) so please don’t waste your time-or mine- in pointing that out...since I'm sure you know that I will know more than you on this.
The zodiac speeds along the waves, the crests making the boat rise up and slam down creating fountains of spray, in the process thoroughly soaking everyone in the boat despite being smothered in the waterproof bright red suits-which were meant to keep you dry but spectacularly failed since it prevented the water from getting out... and seemed to funnel the water into the suits- a slight design flaw I think the engine cuts out allowing the zodiac to slow to a stop, facing a giant cone soaring out of the sea, cloaked in a majestic forest of greenery which covers the island from top to toe. A bird sanctuary, home to eagles nests with half grown chicks and a wild variety of other birds. It is also home to a large number of Harbor seals which are unfortunately viewed as -by the transient orcas-as a quick snack, and in the words of our guide the whales used it as a 'Drive-through- lovely.
Our gaze is unfortunately drawn to the big geezer of water which has just shot into the air not three feet from the boat. this geezer is shortly joined by little bits of seal and the geezer goes to a rather fetching shade of pink- the source of the waters color change however is not anywhere near pleasant- for the cause of the change is a seal which has been nearly severed by the orca which has seized it around the middle and is proceeding to thrash it around until it wasn’t moving. At which point the sounds of bones being crunched where perfectly audible and sounded along the lines of when you hold a ruler of the edge of a table and twang it so that it makes a sound, crossed with when you snap a stick in half. The guide starts up the boat again and the boat begins to skim along the waves again and soon that grating sound has been left far behind, and we have hit open water leaving the channels and islands behind, this is now Grey Whale territory.
Soon our guide had located a pod of whales and wisely-also thankfully- kept the boat away from the whales so that we wouldn't disturb them feeding or make them feel threatened since whales have long memories and can still attack boats like they did in times when whaling was prevalent. The hunters would seize a baby grey and torture it to lure the adults closer-within harpooning range- however this would also enrage the pod causing them to attack the boat and quite often they would win... however since the whaling trade was so profitable, it would still be worth the cost to hunt the whales, so we really didn’t want to scare the whales, besides they are naturally curious creatures anyway and would most likely come up to the boat on their own accord.
They did.
Now as I had already said this was not as fun a trip as it had promised to be. So there was me, hunkered down at the back of the boat with the -highly attractive- bright red suit hood pulled as far over my head as it could go, sat with my knees up to my chest and staring determinedly down at the floor not looking up, until a cry of delete and surprise jolts me out of my reverie. looking slowly to my side I see a huge eye looking at me, so deeply surrounded by wrinkles that it was almost hidden, yet still its curiosity burned out brightly about the strangely dressed small girl from the land who wasn't paying the whales any attention ,whimpering quietly and looking faintly green. We look at each other for about all of thirty seconds until I explode out of where I was sitting and running, screaming, to the furthest point away from the whale whilst the others all take pictures of it, the guide exclaims that in all his years of being around whales he has personally never seen a whale get that close to human before in the wild. Lucky me.
After about a minute the whale either became bored with everyone gawking at it or just maybe it was hungry so it slipped beneath the water again barely causing a ripple, anyway they managed to pry me off the roof of the wheel house... and then a whale starts fluking and everyone tries to take pictures- they are oh so very difficult to photograph as everyone found out- and generally manages to take shots of open water, but occasionally they would strike lucky and get a decent shot.
After what seems like eternity but is only about an hour the whales finish feeding and our guide turns his boat around, heading back to Tofino and for the long three hour drive back to our chalet at April Point Lodge.
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