Sunlight sparkled on the North Atlantic, and somewhere off the rugged coast, Erica swam with a quiet assurance—a regular visitor to our chilly, fish-filled waters and a true wanderer of the sea. Some whales grace us for a fleeting summer, but Erica turns up again and again, as if drawn back by memories stitched into every breaking wave.

Erica’s story begins far to the south, where the waters are warm and the breezes soft. January of 2004 marked the first recorded glimpse of her at Silver Bank in the Dominican Republic—a favourite winter retreat for many an adventurer with flippers. She returned to those balmy Caribbean waters again in early 2005, no doubt enjoying the tropical ease before journeys north.

By July 2006, she surfaced near Witless Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, her dark back breaking through a landscape of sea spray and emerald-cliffed coastline. Over the following years, Erica became something of a neighbour—spotted regularly around Witless Bay, with the odd jaunt over to Trinity Bay. She was seen among the capelin schools and tumbling puffins, sometimes with a calf by her side, like on that memorable August day in 2016 when she swam with her little one in Witless Bay.

Erica has made repeated returns over the years, from the brisk dawns of 2013 to the golden evenings of 2019. Even as recently as last July, she was seen bobbing near Bay Bulls, and just this past summer, she graced Trinity Bay once again. With every surfacing, she leaves us with fresh wonder and new questions about her migrations and mysterious time away.