I do not even know where to begin with this blog. I sit here in a hotel room in Winnipeg, Canada, resting after a couple of long flying days, trying to gather my thoughts on what to write today. It has been one hell of a journey this summer, and it is far from over.

I just returned from a successful, yet unsuccessful Scotland trip, searching for basking sharks. Scotland was amazing, the place is a land of dreams; The castles, the landscape, the people. All of it is just magical.

The wildlife is epic as well… well that is if we had seen any. Sadly the basking sharks and the puffins were a no-show. We saw some Scottish red deer, and otters, and highland cows (that was pretty cool), But sadly, we missed the puffins by a couple of days, and the basking sharks were down deep.

The waters temperatures are changing and the places where we would normally find basking sharks were too cold. We needed the surface temperatures to warm up a bit so that the plankton would rise to the surface, attracting the sharks up.

So sadly we saw zero sharks. It happens. Nature can be cruel that way. All it means is we need to go back and try it again.

So here I sit, anxious to kick off the next adventure, which is to find beluga whales and polar bears in Churchill. My flight to Churchill is tomorrow morning and man I can’t wait. I have not been to Churchill since 2018. That was the last season they allowed snorkeling with the beluga whales. In 2019 they decided to ban all swimming with the whales, so we took a year off from visiting here to let the powers that be figure things out.

They did… they came up with beluga boarding. Which is, we are allowed to lay down on a floating mat, that gets towed behind the boat, and we can stick our faces and cameras in the water to see the approaching whales. We wanted to return in 2020, but covid hit and well, you know the rest of that.

Normally belugas are shy, and when we would jump in the water with them the whales would keep a healthy distance from us. However with this approach, the belugas are extremely curious and come right up to the cameras for a closer look. I am super excited about giving it a try to see how it works out.

Well, the waiting game and a new adventure to share with you all begins.

I am really excited to tell this tale, because Churchill is also a magical place. I am hoping the wifi will allow me to update you guys while I am out there. We will see, either way, I will be able to post thing on our social media pages. I just hope I can share stories on our website, which is where I prefer sharing things.

Until then thanks for reading.

We just added a basking shark expedition to our trip itinerary for the 2022 season. This is a trip I have wanted to do for years, and we finally decided to set it up. Basking sharks are the second-largest fish in our oceans and one of the most mysterious. Sadly, this species was decimated by fishermen who wanted their livers for oil and because they were considered a nuisance shark.

Commercial fishers paid money to have these sharks killed on the East coast because the basking shark kept damaging their boats and nets. Basking sharks are filter feeders, so they swim on or near the surface, ram feeding for plankton. The sharks would often get caught in gill nets or hit the fishing boats causing financial damage. So they would kill every shark they would find. They nearly wiped out the entire East Coast population of these sharks in the process.

Thankfully these sharks finally won some protection, and since then, their numbers have been on the rise. They are still nowhere close to recovering, but they are on their way. Only a few places left where you can see them, and the Isle of Coll off Scotland is one of them.

I am very excited about going there and finally getting in the water with them. I am also enthusiastic about the other activities we will be doing once we are there. There are sea otters there, grey seals, and a healthy puffin colony that nests in the area. I have wanted to see puffins for a long time, so pumped that we will have a chance at them as well. We will try diving with them as well. They are a diving species, so trying to capture underwater images of these birds along with guillemots underwater will be a lot of fun. So if you are interested in joining us for our first Scottish wildlife adventure, visit our expedition page for more information.

Learn more

Goodbye Scotland, Hello Canada!

We Added a Basking Shark Expedition!