Published at 12:43 am. Updated at 05:00.
“I didn’t understand what happened. I thought I had hit a rock. » Mariève Côté was kayaking on the St. Lawrence River when she was forcibly thrown into the water. The guilty ? A minke whale that rammed his boat for an unknown reason.
This rare and extraordinary accident occurred last July near Baie-Comeau on the north coast.
For Mariève Côté, it illustrates how important it is to be well prepared for a trip on the river, even on routine hikes.
“If I had been alone, I don’t think I would have made it through,” said the woman, who spent six weeks in the hospital, including one in intensive care.
However, the conditions were ideal on the day of the accident. “There was no wind, no waves,” she remembers.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARIÈVE CÔTÉ
Mariève Côté (left) and her friend Maude Richard St-Vincent, who accompanied her during her kayak trip
With a friend, Mariève Côté went kayaking in a bay near the village of Franquelin. Frequented by fishermen and boaters, the area is also the natural habitat of several marine mammals.
The two friends had been traveling for almost an hour when the collision occurred.
I started to speed up a bit and suddenly there was a bang! I felt a really big impact.
Mariève Côté, kayaker, struck
“It was like a car crash,” she continues.
The impact was so violent that she was thrown from her kayak. “I quickly felt like I was hurt. I couldn’t move much, I had difficulty breathing. »
An animal “anything but small”
Her friend, a trained biologist, witnessed the entire scene: out of nowhere, the head of a minke whale hit the bottom of their boat.
“We call it a minke whale, but it is anything but small,” argues Robert Michaud, scientific director of the Marine Mammal Research and Education Group.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM MINGAN ISLAND RESEARCH STATION SITE
A minke whale jumps out of the water
When fully grown, a minke whale can reach a length of up to 8 meters and a weight of up to several tons. “When you see them on the surface, you’re actually only seeing a small part of the animal,” he continues.
Due to a back injury, Mariève Côté was unable to get back into her kayak. Using a whistle, her friend managed to alert a young couple who were fishing on board an inflatable boat a little further away.
“The dinghy towed the kayak to the launch site. I stayed in the water the entire time, resting my head on the paddle. It took about 45 minutes. Luckily I had a thermal suit because the river water was extremely cold,” she says.
When help arrived, Ms. Côté was hypothermic. A victim of multiple trauma, she was transported to Le Royer Hospital in Baie-Comeau before being airlifted to Enfant-Jésus Hospital in Quebec.
The psychologist spent a total of six weeks in the hospital, including one in the intensive care unit, in addition to an operation on her left lung.
When she was discharged from the hospital, she was slowly recovering from her accident and could hardly imagine what would have happened to her if she had not worn a thermal suit or been unaccompanied.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARIÈVE CÔTÉ
Mariève Côté in a kayak
“I don’t think I would have been able to whistle at all,” says Mariève Côté, who is pleased to have completed sea kayak training a year earlier.
An extraordinary accident
Such an event is extraordinary, assures Robert Michaud.
I have never heard of an accident involving a minke whale, even one more harmless than this.
Robert Michaud, scientific director of the Marine Mammal Research and Education Group
This is all the more surprising because whales are excellent navigators. What could have caused one of them to hit the boat like that?
The scientist sees only a plausible hypothesis. “Minke whales develop all sorts of strategies to group food and bring it to the surface. “We’re not sure, but we think the animals’ attention decreases during these maneuvers,” he explains.
The brutal impact of the collision is also greater on an animal that hunts and therefore swims quickly than on an animal that comes to the surface to breathe.
Protect yourself on the water
However, one thing is certain: this accident should serve as a warning. “When we are on the water, we need to know that we are not in our habitat. We have to be careful. If we are in an area where there may be whales, we have to be doubly careful,” emphasizes Robert Michaud.
In Canada, it is illegal to approach a marine mammal within 100 meters or more, depending on the area and species. And if an animal approaches you, the law requires you to move away quietly.
“The rules are aimed at protecting animals, but clearly also at protecting people,” states the scientist.
“No matter what activity we do, there is always some risk. What made the difference in my case was the fact of being accompanied, having undergone sea kayak training and having the appropriate equipment. We had good practices,” concludes Mariève Côté.