We had 2 boats depart from the Nanaimo harbour today, both heading south through Dodd Narrows before splitting up to cover more ground.
Kula headed south through Trincomali all the way to Active Pass where they stopped to look at Harbour Seals hauled out on the rocks.
Did you know that Harbour Seals eyes are specially designed for seeing under water? On land their eyes are actually worse than humans eyes! They are also very photo sensitive, so too much light can actually hurt them. When you see Harbour Seals on land often times they are squinting, likely to reduce the amount of sunlight getting in.
They have special lens in their eyes for seeing refracted light, light that has been scattered by entering the water. These special lenses give them incredible eye sight under water and help them to avoid predators and catch their food.

Below are some photos taken during the tour by Marine Naturalist Rebeka Pirker.

Harbour seal pinniped Nanaimo Vancouver Island — Did you know harbour seals practice yoga daily? Look at that banana pose!

After watching the Harbour Seals they kept heading south and entered Plumper Sound, where they saw some Harbour Porpoises skipping through the water. After a quick search they continued around Saturna Island and headed north for the Belle Chain Islands near Samuel Island, where they watched a large gathering of Steller Sea Lions. These sea lions will soon begin their migration north to their rookeries where they will spend the summer breeding and pupping, before returning to our local waters in the fall.
After leaving the sea lions Kula made it’s way north, in through Porlier Pass and through the Gulf Islands before stopping at Harmac to see the smaller California Sea Lions lounging about while they loaded logs onto ships nearby.

Cascadia, our RHIB vessel, took a similar route, traveling south through Dodd Narrows and hugging the West side of the channel, going down Stuart and heading for Salt Spring Island. There wasn’t much to see near Sansum Narrows and it looked like it was pretty rainy there, so we turned and headed towards Porlier, stopping at some small islands to see the Harbour seals before continuing south and traveling out Active Pass and passing Kula near the Belle Chains to see the Steller Sea Lions.
Cascadia left the Sea Lions after some time and head back home, passing into Porlier and up into Gabriola Pass before stopping to see another group of Steller Sea Lions and Harbour Seals before returning to the protected waters of the gulf islands. Cascadia traveled up and made one last stop at the Gabriola Island Bluffs to see the nesting Cormorants before returning to harbour.

It was a long journey through the Gulf islands with each vessel covering almost 100 miles, and with several other boats on the water that day we were very sad that no whales were seen. However, all our guests received vouchers to come out again for free and take another shot at finding whales.

April 21st - Searching the Salish Sea

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