A five-day trek for a group of Canadian kayakers turned into the trip of a lifetime thanks to a mother humpback whale and its baby.
The kayakers were taking a guided tour in the Discovery Islands in British Columbia when the mother whale and her calf jumped out of the water multiple times at close range to the kayakers.
Damon Stapinsky, owner of Wildcoast Adventures, was the tour guide on the trip and pointed out the whales to the rest of the group to watch.
"I was sitting right behind the group. I was just letting all my guests enjoy what we were watching, the mother feeding her young," Stapinsky told CTV. "We saw the tail fluke go down and we assumed that was the end of the show.
Stapinsky said after about 30 minutes, the calf and the mother whale started jumping right in front of the group.
"It was incredible but unexpected. There’s no way we could’ve foreseen that. All I could think of was the safety of the guests," Stapinsky said.
When the tour guide got back to dry land, he posted the video of the experience on YouTube.
Stapinsky said he has had a mostly positive response from people who have watched the video.
"Of course with everything, you’re going to get the bad as well," he said, saying some have criticized him for his group’s proximity to the whales. "We’re very confident we followed the guidelines and it was just unexpected and exciting."
According to CTV, scientists say the species has been making a remarkable comeback since it was nearly hunted to extinction in the 20th century.
There are now estimated to be up to 21,000 in the northeast Pacific Ocean alone, and research is underway to determine whether changes in the food chain are spurring their numbers.
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