VANCOUVER -- Videos captured in the last week show humpback whales near Vancouver.
A clip posted on YouTube was captured from the Seton Villa Retirement Centre in Burnaby.
The Burrard Inlet is visible from the building's upper floors, and cellphone video shows a whale breaching near a boat not far from the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.
In an email to CTV News, Seton Villa's executive assistant Jennifer Chisolm said the video was captured this week from the penthouse.
She said she was told by a research and conservation program that it's "quite rare" to see a humpback breach in the area.
"Killer whales come into Burrard inlet maybe once or twice a year, but I had a quick look through our sightings database, and we only have 2 other examples of humpbacks spotted that far in the harbour in the last 20 years and never a breach," Chisholm said Wild Whales told her.
The nine-second video captured Wednesday from the 19th floor was posted on a resident's YouTube page. Watch it below.
Another caught-on-camera encounter happened last Friday.
Josh Bach said he and his girlfriend were boating from Vancouver to the west side of Keats Island, between Bowen Island and Gibsons, when they spotted the blow.
Bach told CTV News they saw it in an area further from shore, and slowed down to see if they could see it again. The whale was heading toward the shore, and surfaced just 30 to 40 feet from the shoreline.
He said people from the north side of Keats Island ran down to their docks to take in the sight.
"We followed the whale for almost 10 minutes, seeing him/her surface every minute and a half or so," Bach said.
The whale then headed into Howe Sound, he said. Watch the video above to see their encounter. The video clips above were captured by Bach and Krystal Kaju.
The embedded video below shows a humpback breaching near Seton Villa.
