Carl Tremblay has the ocean in his eyes. From the moment you step onto his small aluminum cabin cruiser in Saguenay Fjord, you know this is a man who has a lot of passion for his job. “I love this place,” he says with childlike wonderment. While our captain readies the boat and goes through a quick safety briefing, Tremblay pulls out a sizeable spiral-bound book filled with photos of wildlife that he has taken. He spends a few minutes sharing each photo, carefully describing how I will find these things and how big they are. Some the size on my fingernail might be easily overlooked, but not to worry, Tremblay will be my diving partner and plans to show me the wonders himself.
After a lifetime of diving in the same place, most charter owners get tired of taking clients for a dive. Not Tremblay, he has invited us as his guests, knowing that we will find this place as beautiful as he does.
Saguenay Fjord National Park/Parc National du Fjord-du-Saguenay is located in Quebec, Canada on the eastern end of the Saguenay River and adjoins the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park for over 100 km. Lac Saint-Jean drains its tannic water into the fjord, creating a brownish sheen on the surface. If you never looked deeper, you would never see the wonders below. Splashing in, an ochre-colored glow envelopes me. As Carl and I descend, the water temperature quickly drops to near zero, and the current picks up. We skirt along a rocky wall, surrounded by clouds of shrimp and a few bobtail squid. In the mixing zone of fresh and salt water, the roiling halocline makes it challenging to focus. Dropping further, we reach the limit of the freshwater, and I can taste the sweetness of the ocean in my mouthpiece. In this clear saltwater layer, the water is a cobalt blue, but it is a night dive. No light penetrates this deeper zone. No matter how sunny, dives in the fjord are always night dives.
The 105-kilometer long fjord stretches out as wide as 2 to 4 kilometers and plunges well over 200 meters deep. Cliffs along the fjord tower another 150 meters high, blocking out the afternoon sun. In the summertime, beluga whales gather in the northern region of the park in Baie-Sainte-Marguerite near Sacré-Couer. At the eastern part of the park, humpbacks, minke whales and other large marine mammals play in the mouth of the fjord.
My drysuit zipper is leaking, introducing near-freezing water to my chilling body. I feel the slow creep down my leg, but am determined to stick it out as long as I can. I use a macro port on my camera to record the small and colorful life. Tremblay swims just ahead pointing out unique flora and fauna with his flashlight. The current pulls us along the wall that descends near vertical with few small ledges. After 45 minutes, our dive time is coming to a close. I’m wet and cold, but wouldn’t have missed this for the world. It is beautiful to learn about new marine life, but I am just as thrilled to dive with a man who is excited about protecting this natural environment. Carl is the ambassador of Saguenay, and the fjord is in good hands.
To dive with Carl: Accés Plongée
2275 rue Burma, Jonquière Québec G7S 2Y2
1-800-PLONGEE
