LA ROUTE DES baleines

TADOUSSAC IS A CENTRE FOR VISITORS EAGER TO WHALE WATCH, SNORKEL AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNIQUE ECOSYSTEM OF THE SAGUENAY-ST. LAWRENCE MARINE PARK

- SABRINA PIRILLO

IT WAS LIKE WATCHING synchronized swimmers at the Olympics — two enormous humpbacks emerged from the St. Lawrence River, breaching in perfect tandem. It seemed as if they knew they had an audience and understood what we were waiting to see. “Double breach!” yelled Catherine Dubé, our guide from Croisières AML, the cruise-excursion company operating the whale-watching trip. The moment was magnificent, spectacular, surreal. Coming in the fall of 2020, it reminded me of a French phrase — la vie est faite de petits bonheurs — life is made of small pleasures.

On the north shore of the St. Lawrence River where it meets the Saguenay River, this area has always been important to Innu, Wolastokuk and Mi’kmaq Peoples. The village of Tadoussac was established as a trading post by the French in 1599 and quickly became an important centre for the fur trade. Today, the village is located at the heart of the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park, created in 1998 by the governments of Quebec and Canada to protect the area’s special ecosystem.

Spanning some 1,245 square kilometres — two-and-a-half times the size of the island of Montreal — the park is home to more than 1,800 animal and plant species. It also happens to be one of the best places in the world for whale-watching in general and one of the few places in the world to spot both beluga and blue whales.