While it is unfortunate when we don’t see whales, no-whale tour days end up being some of our favourites out on the Salish Sea. Beautiful evening sights and lots of harbour seal and bird action ended up being our main attraction today, along with a fun boat ride over the waves out in the Strait of Georgia.

Harbour Seals are incredibly abundant in British Columbia, with approximately 105,000 of them along the rocky coast in about 1400 different haul-out sites. Transient orcas have been shown to feed mainly on harbour seals. Each orca needs to eat about 300 lbs of food every day. An adult harbour seal weighs up to 285 lbs and orcas mainly eat the blubber of the seals, leaving organs such as intestines for other scavengers such as seagulls or bald eagles.

Seals are hunters themselves and have incredible sensory structures. Their eyes have very thick lenses and a high number of rod photoreceptor cells in them that are very well-adapted to the low-light conditions seen underwater. Their whiskers are also capable of picking up vibrations in the water column that can help them hunt their fish prey. It’s even been shown that harbour seals that are blind have no problems relying on their vibrissae (whiskers) to help them hunt by sensing water movements. On land, when you see harbour seals it looks as if they are crying, as they don’t have tear ducts to filter out the mucus produced that protects their eyes.

Seals are unable to hinge their back tail flippers to use them to assist in their movement on land, leading to a movement that can only be described as wiggling or shuffling. The technical term for harbour seal on-land movement is galumphing, which refers to moving clumsily. Once they’re in the water, harbour seals can swim up to 25km/hr, contributing to them being a transient orca’s favourite snack, as orcas can swim up to 50km/hr.

Photos during this evening’s tour were taken by Marine Naturalist Carmen Murphy.

July 29, 2023, 3:30 PM - A beautiful evening in the Salish Sea