Picnic lunches while whale watching normally are in the boat. The location of the lunches vary from day to day but often involve being tied to a kelp bed. The first photo provides some perspective as to the closeness of the humpback whale while the second shows that the whale was just enjoying a roll in the kelp bed. On this day we were about half way through our lunch as as you can see there not much boat traffic. With our engine turned off it was a very peaceful area and the whale was just doing what whales do when there is no one to disturb it’s natural behaviour.
Sea Otter Sightings

The last 3 years we have been starting to view sea otters in our area more regularly. They are still often a distance away, but the sightings are increasing with some “rafts” of them developing in areas near the western portion of our whale watching trips. These animals were hunted heavily for their fur and were completely wiped out of British Columbia waters. Re-introduction occurred from Alaskan otters in the 1960’s. They have long been protected and their numbers have been steadily increasing along the exposed BC coast and are now moving back into inside waters. They are unique in that they don’t have the insulating blubber that other marine mammals use to keep warm. As a result they have dense (over 1 million hairs per square inch) fur and feed heavily. They are important in balancing the eco-system. They eat a lot of sea urchins, which eat a lot of kelp. Kelp is extremely important as it provides cover for juvenile fish and is where the herring spawn in the early spring. With the increase in these otters we are seeing a greater abundance and healthier kelp forests.
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