June 3rd 3:30 PM - Feathered feet in the gulf islands

It was another amazing day on the water getting to spend time exploring the Salish Sea. Our tour headed south through the scenic Southern Gulf Islands, running down along the DeCourcy island groups, Valdes Island, and Galiano island. We passed through Active pass, a passageway with a rich history in British Columbia. This pass lives up to its name in the number of ships that transit through the pass, the currents that form there during tide changes, and the number of animals that pass through there or spend time along its shoreline. Even though all these factors are very fitting for the name, Active Pass was originally named for the USCS Active, the first ship to be recorded navigating through it.

While travelling through Active Pass we stopped to see Paficif harbour seals hauled out on the rocky shores and swimming in the waters. These little rock sausages are the primary food source for our transient orca and can be found all along our shorelines. These little water pups are finally at a healthy population of nearly 105,000 following several decades of low numbers due to a pinniped cull done in the 70s. These Sea dogs are often a crowd favourite, watching them galumph across the rocks before gracefully sliding into the water, curiously watching the boats and lazily drifting in the waters.

From Active Pass we turned north, scanning the waters for the whales we had seen in the morning. These whales, though large, can move a lot in a few hours. Today they seemed to have moved well away from where we had them and we were unable to relocate them. We decided to head back into the Gulf island for a calmer ride back towards Nanaimo, passing through Dodd Narrows once again and stopping at Harmac pulp mill to see the California sea lions, and one last stop at the Gabriola Bluffs to see the nesting cormorants.

Photos by Marine Naturalist Rebecca Stirling.