After my family and I moved to Vancouver Island, I was excited to discover all the new wildlife in our midst. In early March, my photographer brother Michael and I were looking forward to seeing the male California and Steller sea lions feasting during the Pacific herring spawn.
We had read that a large herd of sea lions had been sighted on a sandy spit in Deep Bay, about an hour’s drive from our home, so we decided to investigate. As we approached the beach, we could hear loud barking and roars, but that didn’t prepare us for the spectacular scene we were about to witness.
There were over 100 sea lions basking on the sand—snow-capped mountains and windswept waters in deep tropical shades of indigo and turquoise creating a beautiful backdrop for these massive creatures.
There was a crowd of onlookers, some of whom even had pet dogs on leashes, all marveling without causing any disturbances. The sea lions seemed to ignore us humans and allowed my brother and me, along with a handful of other local photographers, to get quite close, but not too close. I ended up being able to take photos with my zoom lens that included small groups within this large herd. This image was one of my favorites, as this mature male’s expression is so deceptively gentle as he suns himself, his “blonde mohawk”—in fact, the lighter colored fur covering his sagittal crest—lying flat atop his head.
