BRITISH COLUMBIA
IN THE GIANTS’ WAKE
A sea kayaking journey through the Johnstone Strait offers eye-to-eye encounters with orcas, humpbacks and sea lions.
Words: Zoey Goto
A wildlife-spotting boat trip with Sea Wolf Adventures
IMAGES: SOPHIA HSIN; AWL IMAGES
Jen Ray finds crabs
Kayaking off Vancouver Island;
a humpback; kayak guide
Suddenly, I hear it: a rush of air and water so powerful that it sounds like a waterfall. It’s the unmistakable exhalation of a whale —explosive, resonant and coming from somewhere behind my kayak. Tentatively, I turn my head.
I spot it immediately: it’s a humpback, rising from the water like a shadowy wave about to crest. Its massive, slate-coloured body glitters briefly in the morning light, before it sinks back into the depths, just as quickly as it had emerged. Soon, the ripples left behind by its mighty flukes fade, and it’s like it was never there.
For a moment, I’m too stunned to paddle. Compared to the whale, which stretches roughly 40 feet from tip to tail, I am tiny —a speck bobbing in an orange kayak in the chilly waters of the Johnstone Strait, off the northeastern coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia.