When on vacation in the beautiful Canadian rainforest, you’re probably already on the ready to experience some truly sublime sights and sensations. But the guests at Great Bear Lodge in British Columbia, Canada had a huge surprise waiting to greet them earlier this month.

Picture this: you’re in your bathrobe, sleeping soundly or enjoying the quiet forest light sneaking into your room from behind the curtains. You expect that, eventually, when the rest of your family wakes up, you’ll slowly mosey out of your bedroom and enjoy a warm breakfast with your loved ones looking out onto the sights.

Just look at this stunning view!

Instead, you get woken up abruptly and asked to quickly come down to the dock – something that’s never, ever happened before is unwinding right now.

Surrounding Great Bear Lodge is a beautiful scene of a bay that leads into the Pacific Ocean. Pine trees and a pleasantly grey fog hover over the steely blue water. But then, the water begins to bubble and ripple.
Something huge is underneath.

As the onlookers await the big reveal, the look of shock and awe on their faces is enough to get you excited to too what’s coming, even as a second-hand video posted online. The majesty is not all lost!

All of a sudden, you see a pair of humpback whales come up above the surface, spraying mist from their blowholes. The way that they move through the water is so graceful and beautiful, even just that little glimpse of the two giant creatures is enough to fill your heart with hope in the world for quite a while.

According to Great Bear Lodge, the whales were bubble net feeding. This is a learned behavior that not all populations of humpbacks know how to do. They do it in groups as small as two, as we see here, all the way up to 60 or so. They whales communicate with each other to determine where to set their bubble nets in order to feed upon a school of small fish like salmon, herring, or krill.

The folks at Great Bear Lodge were equally as excited as their visitors, and luckily, they caught the whole encounter on video to share with the rest of the world.

When they posted the short clip on their Instagram account, the comments rolled in one after another:

“I want to live in a place like this”

Who wouldn’t?

Marlo Rose, the resident Bear Guide, and her colleague are also pretty adorable to watch as they bring their hands to their heads in disbelief. They even give each other a high five!
It’s wonderful to see folks who are so dedicated to and inspired by nature each and every day.

In order to preserve our planet and the creatures that inhabit it, we need people like this around.

Hopefully, this sighting inspires folks to take a bit more care for the world around them. Limit single-use plastic as much as you can to keep it out of the oceans. Skipped the pre-chopped produce and get it in its natural container, bring your own bags to the grocery store, and carry a reusable water bottle around. It may not seem like a big difference, but these two whales and all the other creatures of the sea will notice a difference if we all try to make a change.