A fishing trip from Port Alice turned into a magical experience for Marko Jurj, due to a lucky decision to take his drone with him on the boat.
He had hoped to get some scenic shots of the mountains running along the coast.
Instead, Jurj was treated to a unique view of a pair of whales playing just under the ocean’s surface.
“I have never had such an experience with whales before, I’ve seen them before but never up this close and never with a drone before,” said Jurj.
He was just off Cliff Point, an area known for salmon fishing, when he saw spray in the distance, perhaps a kilometre away.
Hoping it was whales, he decided to send up his drone.
“From a distance it doesn’t look that amazing, but once I had a drone right above them, I am like holy crap I can’t believe what I am seeing here,” said Jurj.
For more than 20 minutes he watched on his phone as the whales played, their movements captured by the camera hovering only about 100 feet above them.
The size and grace of the humpbacks were mesmerizing, their entire bodies outlined in the bright light.
“It was like this completely different perspective seeing the whole animal. It was awesome,” said Jurj.
The drone doesn’t record sound, so before sending the video to friends, Jurj edited in a powerful orchestral song.
“It’s a pretty, you know, dramatic song and I thought it hadds really well to that video. I thought it was just really fitting,” he said.
It almost appears as though the whales are dancing to the rhythm of the music.
Jurj lives in Edmonton, but gets to his place in Port Alice a few times a year.
This time, he not only filmed the humpbacks, another day an orca bumped his boat.
He said his video let him share the experience with other and will also will keep his memory of an exceptional journey fresh forever.
“This trip was definitely a lot of whales.”
