Insight: Whale-Watching in Coastal Waters

For the Inuit, whaling meant survival; for the Europeans it was big business. Today whales live under the watchful eyes of scientists and tourists.

Canada’s coastal waters provide a habitat for various species of whales: bowhead and white whales are found around Baffin Bay, while orcas and gray whales can be seen off British Columbia.

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While Christopher Columbus and Jacques Cartier were still recounting their New World discoveries, Basque whalers were quietly making fortunes on the Canadian coast. Their Red Bay, Labrador, whaling station employed 1,000 men, and refined up to 2 million liters (440,000 gallons) of valuable oil each season. At the same time, unknown to the Basques, Inuit were catching whales in the Arctic Ocean far to the west, and the Nootka people were hunting off Canada’s West Coast. Other European and later American whalers joined the Basques, expanding their hunts to the edges of the known world on each of Canada’s three coasts. They would pursue the whale in a small boat, thrust their harpoon into the mammal, and let out a line. The frenzied whale would take the boat on what became known as a “Nantucket sleigh ride” until, exhausted, it would fall victim to its hunters. Then its carcass would be towed ashore for stripping.

When the 19th century brought steamships, and harpoon guns to shoot a missile that exploded inside the animal, whale stocks went into decline.

Whaling gives way to whale-watching

By the onset of World War I, profitable whaling had ceased in the Canadian Arctic, but it continued along the British Columbian and Newfoundland coasts with the introduction of factory ships for processing. The International Whaling Commission began controlling catches in the late 1940s, but stocks off Canada’s coasts diminished at a dramatic rate. Commercial whaling was ended by the government in 1972. Today only the Inuit are allowed to take whales, for their own consumption.

Where to Spot a Whale

Newfoundland’s east-coast ports, including those in Trinity and Bonavista bays, date back to the heyday of whaling. Today operators combine whale-watching with sighting bald eagles and other rare bird species. A bonus here is a close-up look at spectacular icebergs as they drift south.

The Bay of Fundy has krill-rich waters stirred by enormous tides. These attract families of huge right whales, so called by whalers, who found them valuable and easy to catch. The most popular spot for viewing is New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island, where expeditions are run by marine biologists. Whale-watching boats also leave from St Andrews, NB and Nova Scotia.

At the confluence of Québec’s Saguenay and the Gulf of St Lawrence, whales are readily seen from the shore and on guided expeditions. Several species here include a permanent – although dwindling – colony of small white beluga whales, the only such group found outside the Arctic.

Churchill, on Manitoba’s Arctic coast, also includes belugas among its whale species. In addition to the traditional excursions, visitors here can go snorkeling among the whales.

On British Columbia’s coast, excursions leave from Vancouver and Victoria and many smaller ports. Gray whales, which migrate each spring down the west coast of Vancouver Island, are best seen between mid-March and early April. There is also a resident population of orcas (killer whales).