A cool fog often hugs the shoreline where the St. Lawrence meets the sea, and on certain mornings, the magic is so thick you’d swear the horizon held secret plans. It’s in this ghostly veil that Irene, a graceful lady of the deep, first turned up in Quebec’s waters, splashing up delight for all who happened to be watching that summer of 2017.

Irene is a traveller—one with her own whims and schedules. Two sightings that first year, midsummer and then come September, as if she was teasing autumn before heading off again. For a spell, she slipped away from eager eyes, letting five whole years pass before a keen observer spotted her again in Quebec’s rolling surf in September 2022. There’s something to be said for that—how a humpback can vanish into miles of open water, then turn up just as vibrant as ever.

The following September, 2023, she danced north of the mighty Saguenay River, that gateway where salt and fresh waters blend in Tadoussac. The area hums with seabirds and emerald cliffs. Just days later, she was seen again in Tadoussac as if on a social tour, making sure everyone along the shore got a fair wave.

But old Irene had even bigger plans. In late July 2026, she set her sights eastward, showing up at St. Lunaire-Griquet on the northern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador. The sun might’ve cracked through clouds that day, revealing her vast frame as she rolled past icebergs and seabird colonies, a rare delight for all lucky enough to spot her so far from her usual haunts.