Tagging Along With Newfoundland's Resident Whale Whisperer

19.10.2023 - 22:13 / cntraveler.com

“Hello, Jennifer! This is Mr. Quickly,” I heard a voice excitedly shout through my phone. “Turn the boat around. The whales are here!”

I leaned over to Captain Mike and told him to steer back the way we came. I put Mr. Quickly on speaker, and he directed Captain Mike to the whales, as the frigid sea salt spray buffeted our eager faces.

I was in Newfoundland, riding with Badger Bay Boat Tours to see the icebergs that had floated down from Greenland, but once Mr. Quickly spotted the whales, we changed course to follow them instead. We sped through the mouth of Badger Bay next to Triton, a fishing town of about 900 people in northeastern Newfoundland, as Mr. Quickly—a nickname for Terry Whalen, a volunteer employee at the Triton Sperm Whale Pavilion—watched both Captain Mike and me in our boat, and the whales, through the pavilion's windows with a view of the water.

Whalen is a retired schoolteacher. He got the nickname Mr. Quickly because he constantly told kids to move, well, quickly. At the whale pavilion, a waterside observatory housed in an immense barn, his volunteer work earned him a second nickname: the Whale Whisperer. He has the uncanny ability to know exactly how long a whale will dive and stay submerged, and where it will break the surface, based on his observation from the pavilion.

Terry Whalen (center), also known as Mr. Quickly or Triton's Whale Whisperer, with fellow whale enthusiasts

In the waters around Triton, whale season lasts from late April to September. Twenty-two species show up during this period, coming to feed on krill, capelin, and squid in the tens of thousands. The pavilion itself is watched over by the skeleton of a 40-foot sperm whale suspended from the ceiling, and a wall of windows look out over the bay. Here, in the summertime, Whalen teaches visitors about whales daily.

“I grew up and I didn’t have a clue about whales,” Whalen told me, explaining that he studied the marine mammals largely via the internet. Born and raised in Triton, perhaps it was fated that Whalen now a thing or two. “I’m just touching the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn something bad enough, you’ll learn it.”

As for Captain Mike, he's a commercial fisherman with a buoyant excitement for his work, which also includes taking visitors out on boat tours and hosting lobster boils at his island vacation home. Everyone calls him Captain Mike, Skipper Mike, or just Mike. He drives the boat for most of the tours his company runs; if he doesn’t, then expect to find his brother, Skipper Clarey. (The Captain title is non-transferable.)

I got in touch with Captain Mike—and Whalen too—through the tourism board of Newfoundland, who worked hard to give me the best chance possible to see whales, even