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Seal finds refuge with fishermen
With a killer whale in pursuit, a harbour seal takes its chances on-board a boat
Dan MacLennan
CanWest News Service
Friday, July 15, 2005
CAMPBELL RIVER -- Fishing guide Dave Manson and two clients caught more than they bargained for when a harbour seal chose their boat over becoming a meal for a transient killer whale.
"I've been out guiding lots of years, but I've never had anything like that happen," Manson said.
Manson, of Destiny Sport Fishing, and two clients -- one from New York and the other from California -- were heading south down Discovery Passage around 9 a.m. Tuesday in a seven-metre (22-foot) Boston whaler.
"We saw a lone bull killer whale coming up the channel, heading north, so we stopped. There were two other whale-watching boats there, so we turned the motor off and watched as he cruised toward us.
"Then the seal's head pops up about 100 feet in front of us. I told the guys, 'This seal better be careful or he's going to end up lunch.'"
Soon, the seal was about three metres off the stern.
"Then he kind of looked around the stern -- I've got a low transom on the back end of the boat -- he peeks his head up and then all at once launches himself into the back of the boat.
"His eyes were just huge, like saucers and he was hyperventilating. ... He was going to take his chances with us rather than with the whale."
Manson's clients took the visitor in stride and took pictures of the seal which, he estimated, was about 90 kilograms (200 pounds) and appeared in no hurry to leave.
"We didn't know what to do. There's not much room in the boat, but you couldn't get really close to him. He'd snarl at you and show his teeth. It's not like we could push him out of the boat."
Manson thought starting up the engine might work, but the seal still stayed put.
Manson motored over to the nearby Eagle Eye Adventures whale-watching boat with his new passenger.
"I said, 'Look what hopped into our boat' and all the people swung around and started flashing pictures like crazy at him.
"He got panicky and went back the way he came in, and he was gone."
Dave Boggild was piloting the Eagle Eye Adventures boat. He said he has seen seals come onto the swimming platform of boats to get out of the water when transient whales are about, "but not right into the boat itself."
Unlike their northern and southern resident cousins, the transient whales are mammal eaters, "and harbour seals are definitely on their diet," Boggild said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005