Coming from Alberta we didn’t learn much about the ocean and what we did learn felt mythical.
UBC has a massive skeleton of a Blue Whale in the Beatty Biodiversity Museum and from the moment I saw their little hip bones from when their ancestors walked on land, I fell completely in love and I’ve been obsessed ever since.
Five years after that I still hadn’t seen a whale and all my friends make fun of me because I stare out at the water convinced every wave breaking was a dorsal fin.
Fast forward to New Years Eve 2020, my partner and I went to Lighthouse Park to say good bye to the year. We were trying to list all the good things that happened to us in 2020 so we would enter the new year with wonder and hope.
While we were on the rocks watching a storm, four orcas surfaced right in front of us and one even breached.
Seeing that at the tail end of a crazy year felt too magical and I was just overwhelmed with happiness at finally seeing my favourite animal. I happily sobbed as I watched them swim away and immediately called my mom to scream/cry almost incoherently.
It was something I will never forget.
-Cailey Anne
This post was adapted from a voice recording in the twenty second episode of the Whale Tales Podcast, listen here
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