Amongst Giants: Green whale-watching in Quebec Province
Last updated 9/29/2008 3:56:37 PM
Saint Laurence river also offers a greener way to observe whales from a kayak. Photo © Paul Glynn
It’s the sound of a blue whale that makes the first impression. Waiting on the oily calm of the Saint Laurence river it’s the first thing we notice – a great rush and hiss as a colossal pair of lungs are emptied; a column of spume and stale air rising into the sky.
Heads turn and we scramble to the gunwale, fumbling with cameras. Before us, less than a hundred metres from the dinghy, the whale pauses. It lies with its back awash, tranquil and silent.
The onlookers sigh and whisper. Then its head dips. The mottled back arches, rolling forward in an endless curve broken only by the stub of the dorsal fin, until its gigantic tail flukes rise dripping and slip under, and it disappears into darkness.
Once it’s gone we sink back, stunned not by the size of the animal – we were ready for this – but by its grace.
Like the albatross and the lion and the great white shark, the blue whale exudes an elegance that transcends human aesthetics; a hundred and fifty tonnes of beauty gliding through the silent ocean; and watching it dive it becomes clear why some would dare an explosive-tipped harpoon to save one. They are simply too stupendous to destroy.