The most exhilarating experience I have had while SCUBA diving came from diving with sealions at Hornby Island, BC (one of the islands between the British Columbia mainland and the Island of Vancouver).
Natural History of the Hornby Sealions
Each winter, male sealions come to feed on the plentiful herring that is gathering to spawn in the Hornby Island area. It’s their vacation, leaving the females and young in Mexico and California. The local sand stone geology of the area makes for relatively good visibility and a shallow shelf on which SCUBA divers can rest. Sealions are *much* larger than seals, and they can stand on their front limbs. Although I’ve been told that three species of sealions can be found at Hornby, I’ve only ever encountered two: the Stellar sealion (much more playful, and featured in all of the videos that I am putting on this page), and the California sealion.
A Unique Experience – Time and Time again
After my first experience, I began an annual migration to Hornby Island myself, to swim with the playful sealions of the area. It can be a little intimidating have an animal that weights one tonne barrel through water heading straight for you… But they veer off at the last second, gracefully. They nibble on your hood and fins and gloves, they imitate your behaviour underwater. At the surface, they bark at you with their fishy breath. There’s no other feeling quite like it! On my last trip, I had a concussion and broken ribs (from a skiing accident the night before), so I could not SCUBA dive. I decided to snorkel with them instead. Imagine my delight when I discovered that they were just as interactive! I highly recommend the experience to anyone interested. Keep in mind that these are wild animals – keep a healthy respect, and recognize when their playfulness may be too much for a simple human to bear. The boat is always just a short swim away…
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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