Bram Büscher of Amsterdam, relates this wonderful story of his vacation to Saint Lawrence, Nova Scotia and Canada, in the summer of 2000:
“In the summer of 2000 I made my first trip to the American continent and I was looking so much forward to it. Making great hikes, seeing the cities you’ve always heard about and… seeing whales for the first time! I have always been interested in whales and I knew that during this trip I would have a chance of seeing them! Our first port of call was Halifax and immediately on day two we took a whalewatching trip… Unfortunatelly.. No whales. A few days later we went up north, to the rugged mountains of northern NS and it is there that we did a whalewatching trip I will never ever forget! Early in the morning, with not so good weather, we went on board on a small rubber boat and as soon as we were away from the coast the captain dropped a mike in the water to listen to the whales. It is that moment that my heart stopped for a beat or two…. So many sounds! They were so noisy under water!! And it was sooooo great to hear! This was probably the most beautifull symphony I have heard in my life. Few minutes later my dream came through because the minke’s started breaking the service and we were all in awe, seeing and enjoying these magnificent creatures!
After that trip I wanted more and in the saint lawrence river, near tadoussac came our next experience. Already from the bus we saw white bodies gliding trough the water… Beloega’s!! And this was only the beginning.. Next day, again early in the morning, we went on a little boat up the river. It took a while but we found some whales!! A humpback was petting the water with its huge right fluke and a finwhale past by from a close distance! We saw these things happening a couple of times and at the end of the trip we saw minke’s again! And this was the most spectacular: They were breaching all the time! We got a spectacular show, which I still think of very often.
Although I was pretty convinced I would always want to help to animals, after I have seen them, it made me even more convinced! What a magnificent animals! We must do everything to make sure they can live a decent life, just like us humans want for ourselves! Stop killing them (japan, norway!!), stop polluting, stop overfishing…. They are worth it!! More then I could even imagine.”
