I'm a whale watcher Vancouver 2011

by Shepherd Campbell
(Mckellar, Ontario, Cananda )

This past July my family went on a vacation to Vancouver, BC. We saw many, many sites during our two-week stay but our favourite by far was the whale watching tour called "Wild Whales", that we was located on Grandville Island.

On the particular day that we took our tour, we followed a resident "super" pod of whales that contained a extended family of 88 Orca whales. Since the whales can communicate within a large range of one-another, we just happen to start following a smaller group of Orcas within this larger pod. This smaller group contained approximately 8 whales. It was absolutely amazing to see these beautiful mammals traveling together. There were very active on the day we saw them, breaching and swimming together at a very quick speed. I really loved watching the smaller whales, trying to figure out how to breach from the water trying to imitate the older whales.

The guide on our trip was also wonderful, you could tell from the passion in her voice, that the preservation of the whales meant the world to her. She was even studying marine biology at university. It made me feel good to know what we were also supporting an eco-friendly tour, that truly had the well-being of the whales at heart.

I would recommend this summer vacation experience to anyone who has the opportunity to do it, for us it was definitely a life-changing experience.

One of my parting recommendations is that it can be very difficult to try to get a good quality picture of the whales unless you have a quick snapping camera; however, the tour guide did offered to send out picture from her camera to everyone to their email addresses, so put your camera down just take the time to be present and enjoy the experience.