A B.C. woman was hoping to catch fish off the Sunshine Coast last fall when she encountered a different creature in the ocean.
On Sept. 16, 2024, Jenna Berman and her friend Eden had stopped at a small bay near Pender Harbour when they heard what sounded like a belly flop on the water.
“We walked down the stairs, and it wasn't a belly flop,” she recalled. "It was about 20 dolphins, and they were just jumping, kind of like racing around.”
To their shock and surprise, they were witnessing a personal wildlife moment.
“There was nobody else there,” said Berman. “It was the most surreal experience.”
She likened it to the scene of a nature documentary.
“It was obviously one of the most special moments of my life that was happening right in front of me,” she told Lodestar Media. “It felt bizarre that this was happening right before my eyes.”
Berrman, a multi-disciplinary artist, quickly ran back to grab her camera.
"I thought that by the time I got back, the dolphins would be gone, but they were still there.”
Putting her skills to work, she managed to take spectacular photographs of the leaping mammals.
“I could tell they were dolphins because they were jumping very high,” she said. “They were a little too rambunctious to be whales. They were a little crazy.”
The Pacific white-sided dolphins were moving around quite a lot so she sat there for hours and took more than 1,000 photographs.
"I think the thing that really sticks in my mind is just how surreal it felt that it happened by chance,” said Berman.
She recently joined a and wanted to share the 2024 experience with everyone. Her photos have garnered more than 900 likes and 59 shares.
“I didn't expect that many people to be so interested, because I just kind of took the photos for myself,” she said. “The fact that I'm now talking about it to you is quite bizarre as well.”
Berman's prints can be purchased through .
Having recently moved to the Sunshine Coast, she's looking forward to taking more wildlife photographs.
"I feel like the Sunshine Coast is a perfect place to do that. There's so much wildlife,” Berman said.
"I have coyotes just walking through my garden and I know there's a bear that lives on my property. I just haven't met him yet.”
