From biblical tales to more recent accounts, whales have fed our collective imagination. Long after Aristotle's enlightened treatise describing them as mammals, they continued to be depicted as sea monsters or water-spouting fish. Far from dispelling the aura of mystery surrounding the lives of whales, our growing knowledge of their biology sometimes reveals animals far more surprising than the myths that they inspired.

Whales are extremely well adapted to their aquatic lifestyle. Millions of years of life at sea facilitated favourable transformations for living in this new environment. These numerous adaptations belie the kinship that exists between whales and humankind. Whales are mammals, like us. They reproduce and nurse their young as we do.

The Gulf and Estuary of the St. Lawrence form a kingdom for whales. They are like an open air laboratory for biologists fascinated by these giants. Since the beginning of the 1980's, the St. Lawrence has also become an incomparable destination for those wishing to attempt an encounter with whales.