Whale of a time
Tourism, whale sightings down in Bay of Fundy: operator
Tom Goodwin can tell a whale of a story to anyone looking for a natural adventure.
Goodwin is one of several outdoor guides based in the Digby area offering whale watching and sightseeing tours of the Bay of Fundy. His season runs July through October, and he says that while summer is winding down, some of the best whale watching days are still ahead.
His online video of a triple whale breach last year was viewed millions of times worldwide and this year, he has already successfully predicted a number of double breaches.
When a humpback whale breaches, it jumps out of the water and whirls around, often several times before slapping the water while going under.
“It is not easy to predict breaches; most are totally unexpected. Some of the cues are also false starts,” he said. “That triple breach video would have never been a ‘smash hit’ if I was wrong!”
Some might say Goodwin was lucky to catch one on video, but with 40 years of whale research and whale watching seasons under his belt, he is among the most experienced whale guides in the world.
No one is certain exactly why whales breach, although most agree it’s a form of communication that could signal that predators are near or a change in direction.
Goodwin’s zodiac tours run daily in the Bay of Fundy, where he usually finds the best spots to view whales, seals, and seabirds. The Bay of Fundy is an important summer feeding ground for whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea birds.
“One of the advantages of working in a tight-knit community is that we all share information, so if there is a lot of activity in one part of the bay, we let each other know,” he said.
A humpback whale breaches close to a zodiac operated by Tom &oodwin on the Bay of Fundy.
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Humpbacks, finbacks, and minke (pronounced “ming key”) whales are among 12 species often sighted in the area. Rarer sights are the Atlantic whitesided dolphins or the North Atlantic right whale, now among the rarest whales in the world.
“I was very active in research and rescuing whales in Newfoundland, but it is not nearly the similar issue in the Bay of Fundy,” he said.
“The right whales have mostly left the Bay of Fundy completely.”
Goodwin says he didn’t see a single right whale in the area in 2018 or 2019 so far, although he says a colleague was lucky enough to spot one.
“It could be viewed as ‘a canary in the coal mine.’” he said. “However, what we have observed and documented as ‘normal’ in the last couple centuries
(by evidence/recording) does not necessarily represent what happened over thousands of years.”
He added that migration patterns may be shifting, but data is limited to our recorded observations over the past several hundred years.
“Orcas might have been (more) common centuries ago, before European man arrived and hunted/fished out most
of the seals and salmon,” he said. “Right whales commonly roamed/migrated to Labrador, so probably common in the northeastern New Brunswick area.”
Goodwin adds that there are other, more recent, changes that are of concern to many.
“The local concerns include too much herring quota taken from close to our shores,” he said.
“The longer-term trend of warming waters due to climate change is frightening for the ecosystems.”
The 2019 season was off to a slow start, and he is also seeing slightly fewer whales - and fewer whale watchers - than in previous years. The sunny weather has been optimal for tours, but he notes that so far this season, there are fewer tourists, perhaps as a result of the absence of the ferry connection to New England.
“It also impacted us greatly in the Digby-annapolis Royal area,” he said. “My own business typically attracts the higher-end traveller (mostly Europe, USA and fly-ins from other provinces), so with no Maine ferry - mainly didn’t come.”