The Summer of the Whales

It's been an extremely busy summer, and one filled with remarkable experiences. For tour boat operators and land-based whale watchers alike in eastern Newfoundland, it's been the Summer of the Whales -- a summer of flipper-waving, spyhopping, tail-lobbing, barrel-rolling, breaching excitement. In a word, wow!

The whales have been cavorting around the Avalon Peninsula and in Bonavista and Trinity Bays,

and each week's adventures around those areas with Wildland Tours have been enriched by memorable encounters with humpbacks. It seems as though every trip with Sea of Whales Adventures, O'Brien's Boat Tours, or Captain Wayne's Marine Excursions has produced a bumper crop of sightings and photo opportunities, and the sightings just keep on coming. The weather has been outstanding, too, with brilliant sunshine, warm temperatures and

evenings filled with golden light -- all the better to record the interaction with the whales. It's early August now, and although the seabird population is beginning to diminish as the birds leave for another season, the whale encounters show no signs of slowing down. I know for certain that it's a great year to be a whale watcher in eastern Newfoundland, and judging by all the cetacean activity going on along our shores, I think it must be a great year to be a whale!