to them and they could see him very, very clearly," he said.

Johnston, who's been diving for more than 20 years, said he's never seen a beluga so close to the Island.

While the students were excited to be in such close quarters with the whale, Johnston said they did not chase or entice Nepi to stay with them.

"We were there doing our thing and he was there doing his thing," he said. "We were just going about our business and he just kept intruding."

Robert Michaud, scientific director of the Quebec-based Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals, says it's worrying to see a young beluga getting friendly with people while away from home -- especially when it's a repeat offender, like Nepi.

Michaud's group first came across the youngwhale in June 2017. After getting a call about a beluga being stuck in the mouth of the Nepisiguit River in Bathurst, N.B., the group coordinated a rescue that involved moving him to the St. Lawrence river in Quebec, near Cacouna.

Michaud said the rescue was an experiment.

"The St. Lawrence beluga population is declining, they're endangered, so we were wondering whether saving an animal would help recover the population," he said. "The animal was not too far from home, it was feasible, so we tried it."

The marine research group put a tag on Nepi so they could track him, but the mischievous whale managed to lose it after about 20 days.

A year after he went off the grid, Nepi was spotted by a wildlife photographer in Ingonish, N.S., and