An amazing display by a large pod of dolphins has people talking in the St. Margarets Bay area of Nova Scotia.
Jodi Isenor spotted a few animals in the bay during his drive home from work Monday and says he couldn’t resist grabbing his paddleboard to join them in the water in French Village.
But Isenor quickly realized the pod was much bigger than he initially thought and says there were dolphins as far as the eye could see.
“It was intimidating but kind of magical almost. It was bizarre. I felt like I should have been in SeaWorld or something like that,” says Isenor. “They were jumping out of the water and going crazy. It was really, really neat.”
Up the road in Seabright, Spencer Mussett jumped into his kayak for a front-row seat.
“One actually came up right beside the boat. I probably could have touched it, and then another and then another hit the back of the kayak, so I thought I was going in for a swim for a minute,” says Mussett.
While area residents were amazed by the spectacular sea show, which lasted for several hours, marine biologist Tonya Wimmer says large dolphin pods are actually fairly common in Nova Scotia and that the animals generally follow their stomachs.
“Mainly in the summertime and a lot of it’s purely because of food. There’s a lot of fish in the area, the animals come in, and most of the time they’re here to feed,” says Wimmer. “I think people got a really wonderful show of nature, just getting to see those animals up close and just sort of milling about like that, and a lot of them by the looks of it.”
“My wife heard from other locals that they were chasing squid into the coves,” says Isenor. “They were just cornering them basically, so they could have a feeding frenzy.”
No one is certain how many dolphins visited the bay, but Isenor says area residents estimate it was close to 100.
“It was unreal and everybody was very happy and excited to see them and taking pictures and videos,” he says. “It was a neat time.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Bruce Frisko
