Spectacular whale breach captured in photos, video

Tuesday, August 25, 2015, 12:49 PM - A breaching whale is an iconic image of the sea, but few have ever seen one in real life, up close, and fewer still have managed to catch one on camera.

Lucky for Penny Graham, the owner and operator of Mariner Cruises Whale and Seabird Tours, the humpback whale that breached in the Bay of Fundy just metres away from her boat, she was quick with the Canon.

"The show that whale put on was just phenomenal," she told The Weather Network on Tuesday.

All photos courtesy Penny Graham, Mariner Cruises Whale & Seabird Tours.

She said finding the whale took some time. The boat was out in foggy weather, shutting down the engines from time to time to listen for whales breaching and breathing. After hearing the humpback leap out of the water elsewhere, they slowly edged their boat toward the source of the sound, being rewarded with the amazing shot.

"It's not that we haven't seen breaching before, but it was the angle. That whale was heading toward us, and it was in the air upside down," Graham said.

As it happens, when the whale breached, one of the boat's passengers was ready to shoot some video.

"Sandy Seliga was vacationing from Toronto and had whale watching on her bucket list — we’d say she can safely check that item off after a sighting like this!" the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, which uploaded the video on Seliga's behalf, said.

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