May 1, 2023 - Seals and Eagles and Sea Lions, oh my!

It was quite the adventure today, where we left the Nanaimo Harbour and headed south in our search for whales. We ended up travelling in nearly every passage of the Southern Gulf Islands hoping to pick up the main wildlife of our tours: the whales! We first headed into Northumberland Channel, then south through Dodd Narrows, until we entered Stuart Channel. We followed Stuart until it eventually turned into Trincomali, and down to an area known as Active Pass.

Active pass is an exciting place since it’s a relatively narrow passage that gets lots of currents through it. We also tend to see lots of wildlife in the passage, like today we saw a whole haul out of Harbour Seals!

Harbour seals are a common sight in the Salish Sea thanks to the Marine Mammal Protection act making it so it’s illegal to cause harm to them or disturb them. We see many of them on our tours, but the population seems to have reached it carrying capacity, meaning they are naturally balanced now in the ecosystem. If their numbers get too high, their predators will lower the numbers, and if they get too low, they will start to be hunted less effectively so their population will start to increase again. It’s amazing what nature will do without human interference.

Soon after we continued south into Navy Channel, then crossed over to the Strait side of Mayne Island where we stopped for some Sea Lions that were hauled out on a small group of islands called the Belle Chains.

The main species of sea lion we were seeing here was the Steller Sea Lion, and they were being rowdy! There was a large male who was pestering the other sea lions, making it very fun for us to watch! Soon our search continued, and we eventually ended up back in the Nanaimo Harbour, unfortunately, without seeing any whales. Hopefully, our guests will be able to use their vouchers to try again for free!

All photos from the trip of the wildlife were taken by Naturalist Des Poier.