Give us a wave
A Nova Scotia fisherman has made some new friends who enjoy tagging along when he’s out on the open water in his WaveRider
It’s play time for dozens of Atlantic white-sided dolphins when Marcel Forgeron shows up with his WaveRunner.
The Havre Boucher fisherman is only too happy to oblige.
In fact, that’s exactly what Forgeron was after when he departed Auld’s Cove wharf on Sunday morning aboard his nimble, open vessel. He made way for his pals, all 35 to 40 of them.
Like always, he didn’t have to go far at all; a few kilometres. These curious, playful creatures are enjoying a feeding frenzy all around the Canso Causeway.
This time Forgeron wore a GoPro camera, documenting the extraordinary encounter in a 1:37 video he later posted to Facebook The dance began within minutes of his departure. It’s easy to see why Forgeron, who spent Monday tuna fishing 20 kilometres off Cape George, looks forward to these regular visits.
They charged straight for him, a school of them. Dolphins seemingly everywhere, popping above the ocean’s surface, racing along the speeding vessel’s path. The rush of waves, the motor’s hum, sent them into a joyous frenzy.
“They are like kids,” Forgeron recalled as he texted from aboard a tuna fishing vessel.
“When they hear me coming, they start jumping out of the water and follow me around and it feels awesome.”
An avid outdoorsman, Forgeron bought himself a WaveRunner a few months ago. He never thought he’d have this much fun.
“I do consider them to be my buddies. They love the waves coming off the vessel and it is pretty cool to see them. It’s something you have to see to truly appreciate.”
Forgeron knew he couldn’t keep all those magical encounters, about eight of them so far, to himself so he made a video and posted it on the Facebook page, We Love Nova Scotia.
Still, he was a little taken aback by the commotion it caused, generating hundreds of reactions and dozens of positive comments.
“But I like people to see what Nova Scotia has to offer.”
Bruce Hatcher, chairman of Marine Ecosystem Research at Cape Breton University, saw it as a generous gesture.
“It is interesting,” Hatcher said. “But they’re very intelligent. I can’t say what’s happening in the mind of a white-sided dolphin, but they’re like dogs. They’re smart, they’re curious.”
Hatcher figures the dolphins are there feeding off an abundance of migrating Atlantic saury attempting to pass through the Strait of Canso. He said their route to the Atlantic Ocean is disturbed by the presence of the Canso Causeway.
“They don’t know what to do. They’re not really smart enough to say, ‘Hey guys, we just have to swim around St. Paul Island.’ No one’s saying, ‘Hey, follow me!’ They just mill around and the birds and whales and dolphins come and pick them off.”