[Alexandria – 10/02/2017 – M/V Sea Lion – 12:00pm]
This gorgeous afternoon Captain Mike, Naturalist Rachel and Naturalist Alexandria all took to the water to see what Wildlife we could find! We circumnavigated the island which was a very unique experience, and an exciting opportunity to see the entire shoreline of the island!
A Hungry Harbor Seal
One of the most entertaining highlights from the trip was while on the West Side of the island, where a Harbor Seal put on quite the show for us! They popped up while we were more than a mile or so off the west side, well into Haro Strait. Upon seeing this Harbor Seal it was obvious he had something in his mouth! He popped up again this time even closer than before, and sure enough he had a halibut easily twice the size of his head!
An Entertaining Show
An interesting thing about seals is that they don’t actually chew their food like we as humans do… seals will often be seen whipping their food around, trying to tear pieces of it off in order to create more bite size pieces to consume. This Harbor Seal was doing exactly this! After swimming up to us and appearing to present his halibut to us as if to say “Hey everyone, look what I got!” he then began to do what all of our parents warned us never to do… he began to play with his food, and what a fun sight it was!
This 5-6 foot long, 250 or so pound seal had finished eating about half of his halibut when he decided to continue along on his afternoon foraging spree, and left us excited onlookers marveling over such a fun show! Harbor Seals are opportunistic, generalist feeders, who have a fairly diverse diet, so anytime we get to see them with such a substantial find is always a fun encounter!
Harbor Seals can be found anywhere between Alaska down to Baja California, Mexico, but due to the incredibly noutrishes water found in the area, the Salish Sea has become a favorite for many of these harbor seals. In fact, our ecosystem is at carrying capactity with all of our seals and sea lions, and they are certainly thriving in this area. This makes us happy to hear, because as you can see they can be quite the source of adorable entertainment!
Cheers! -Naturalist Alexandria