There is something very appealing about sea otters. Perhaps it’s the way they swim on their back much the way scuba divers do. Perhaps it’s because they appear to be so cute and cuddly and furry (they have the densest fur of any animal with over 1 million hairs per square inch which is what provides them with insulation in our less than tropical temperatures!). Maybe it’s because the Mum’s carry their babies around on their tummies as they float upside down and then wrap and stash their kids in the kelp before going for a dive. Or, as we saw last week, the Mum’s will throw a protective arm over their baby when startled and roll over and dive under the kelp with the babe. That is some pretty impressive breath hold diving for those babies!
Read MoreThere are a lot of sea lions around Inian Island and while we are used to having them interact with divers, the interaction has been different this year ie. more animals, groups of sea lions visiting divers are larger, the sea lions are coming in closer than before and there is a lot more mouthing behaviour going on than usual.
Read MoreOur poor guests – some folks were on the port side of the ship watching the bears (which got especially interesting when the grizzlies spotted something further down the beach and got up on their hind legs to get a better view) while other guests were on the starboard side watching the fantastic humpback whale action. And some poor guests were running back and forth to both sides of the boat trying to watch everything at once!!
Read MoreThere is a large population of stellar sea lions around Inian Island that are always interested in scuba divers and the Nautilus Explorer – to the point that they hang around between dives and sometimes come half out of the water to try and look in the portholes of the ship! Fish life is great. Humpback whales and sea otters swim back and forth past the boat all day long. The scenery is absolutely spectacular although that is a pretty lame description compared to the reality of the vista across the strait. It would be more accurate to describe the mountains to the north as imagining what it would look like if a scaled down version of the Himalayas extended to the water’s edge!! There are even rumours of salmon sharks (ie. imagine a 10 foot scaled down version of a great white shark) in the area and you can bet that we are keeping our eyes open for those guys. It’s an amazing place and unquestionably worth diving and continuing our explorations.
Read MoreOur first dive today was at West Race Wall and the scuba diving there equals world famous Browning Wall (which means that it is pretty darn good). My only surprise of the day was the dearth of sea lions basking in the sunshine on the rocks. I’m used to seeing hundreds of animals here. Instead, we saw a total of 5 stellar sea lions and no California sea lions. Not sure what to make of that.
Read MoreExcellent dive in the ecological reserve at Race Rocks this morning. Divers saw big stellar sea lions, a free-swimming wolf eel at 20 feet and tons of invertebrate life… Anchored at the old leper colony which is kind of cool…
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