As Sean Russell and his daughter Sarah prepared to go cod fishing early Sunday off Conception Bay in Newfoundland, Sarah told her dad that all she wanted to do is see some whales.
“It’s not uncommon to have whales around the boat,” Russell told Global News on Monday. “The whales are usually around and eating there, too.”
READ MORE: North Atlantic right whales nearing extinction, international nature body says
That’s why 10-year-old Sarah always carries binoculars with her on these fishing trips to look underwater and catch a glimpse of the whales, Russell said.
But what happened next was completely unexpected.
“I noticed the whales turned and came towards us,” Russell said. “There was no jumping at all for like an hour,”
READ MORE: Vessel strikes blamed for at least four of nine right whale deaths in 2019
Then, all of a sudden, a whale jumped out of the water, rolled over and “flapped his arms together … like clapping,” he said.
Sarah said that she couldn’t believe what just happened.
“It was mind-blowing,” Sarah said in a phone interview. “I didn’t know they could do that.”
Russell said the footage makes it seem like it was happening far away from the camera, but it was pretty close.
“It happened so fast,” he said, but it left an impression on his daughter who wants to be a veterinarian and work with whales one day.
“Feels like they were just doing that for me and dad. … Whales can have fun, too!”
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