The whale’s striped belly can be seen as it dips below the boat, which Mouellic told CBC was nerve racking as the whale could have hit the boat, throwing the passengers into the water.
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“It was already marvelous”.
Fin whales are the second largest animals on earth, after the blue whale.
He added the boat operator said he had never seen anything like it in 15 years.
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.
In theory, whale watching sounds like lots of fun and a great family day out but after watching this video of it in practice we think we might reconsider any future expeditions.
The group on the boat was watching a pair of whales feed when one swam right towards the boat with its boat wide open to collect feed – likely, krill – before diving underneath. He explained that the tiny shrimp-like crustaceans are sometimes brought close to the surface in vast numbers in an upswell. But no one ever said the whales can’t come closer than 100 metres to the boats.
Whale-watching businesses are members of the Eco-Whale Alliance, which means they are expected to keep their distance from marine life to avoid disturbing them. That’s why the whale turned… on its side.
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“It’s really, really huge”.
