It was another great day on the water on the 14th of June when we left Nanaimo Harbour and headed out to find some wildlife! We ended up getting more than we bargained for when we found humpback whale Ocular, seals, sea lions, jellyfish, and even a curious raccoon!

Although it was cloudy when we left the harbour this didn’t bring spirits down, matter of fact, it provided for some really amazing pictures along the way, such as the entrance island lighthouse shown below. Entrance island is a great place to see on a tour not only because of the interesting red roofed buildings but also because it usually has a population of harbour seals and sea lions that call its shores their home. The harbour seals can be seen here year-round whereas the sea lions will migrate away during the summer. If you are out looking for harbour seals this time of year be sure to keep an extra keen eye out because we are starting to see pups! When pups are born the momma seal will leave them behind on shore to go off and find food for herself. Since the seal pups can’t swim yet they are happy to wait on the rocks for mom to come back. That’s why it’s important to leave any young seal pups you may see alone and trust that their moms are going to be back!

Ocular (aka KEX0019) is an easy to ID humpback because of the large chunk out of their fluke on the right side. Today when we found Ocular they were moving pretty slowly but still giving us lots of looks at their impressive tail. This tail is what is used for identification as each fluke is completely unique to an individual, sort of like our fingerprints! You will also see Ocular’s pectoral fin in the pictures . The pectoral fins are also thought to be able to ID individuals although it is less researched because of the infrequency of a humpback showing off their pecs.

Please enjoy the rest of the photos of Ocular and other marine life taken by our marine naturalist Ryan Uslu!