It took Ellen Cuylaerts over a year to get a clear photo of a wild beluga whale, but the experience was one she will never forget.

Every year, the white whales visit Canada's Hudson Bay, where they give birth in the safety of the shallows and shed their seasonal moult by rubbing against bottom rubble. The estuaries of the bay can be incredibly silty, making photographing anything beneath the surface tricky. But with a bit of determination, Cuylaerts finally managed to get it right. 

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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel

Cuylaerts first visited the area in 2014, but runoff from the rivers and bad weather made for poor visibility. "It was very bad, maybe 1-2 feet," she says. "Although I could heard the 'canaries of the sea' underwater, I did not come home with a single clear image."

Over the coming year, she couldn't get the whales out of her head, longing to go back and try again. "I returned to the area in July 2015. Given my previous experience, I had few expectations and decided that I would just enjoy my time in the cold waters of Hudson Bay whilst trying to connect with the animals." 

She never approached the whales, but rather swam away from them as they came towards her. "[Unintentionally] this resulted in some very close encounters," she says. "Beluga whales are very curious, playful and intelligent."

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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel
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Image: Ellen Cuylaerts/WetPixel

The images in this post have been shared with permission from our friends at WetPixel.