They’re harder to spot and a little more elusive than most species, but Trinity and Bonavista Bays are proving to be good places to view sperm whales.

The animals, made famous by Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, were nearly hunted to the brink of extinction due to the demand for ambergris, a substance created by the whales which was a key ingredient in perfumes.

The whales are not commonly seen close to shore and prefer deeper waters off the continental shelf where they dive for squid—their favourite food.

Shawna Prince of Sea of Whales boat tours out of Trinity, on the Bonavista Peninsula, says fortunately for whale watchers, Bonavista and Trinity Bays contain deep trenches, where they often see so-called bachelor pods of sperm whales.

She says the nice thing about sperm whales is they will often give viewers plenty of time before that sought-after tail shot.

She says they give you a one minute warning before they make their big dive and bring their tail out of the water. She jokes “if you can’t get your camera up and ready when you’ve been given a one-minute warning… I don’t know what else I can do for you.”