Home » Bald eagles abound along the Vancouver Island coast, especially during salmon-spawning season.

Bald eagles abound along the Vancouver Island coast, especially during salmon-spawning season.

: Pink salmon may migrate up to 3,000 kilometres from north Alaskan waters to the North American west coast. Here, they have returned to Vancouver Island’s Campbell River where they were born, to spawn and die.

: The yacht anchors along Vancouver Island’s wild eastern coastline so its occupants can explore an old Aboriginal settlement area and coastal waters rich in flora and fauna.

: Left to right, top to bottom: The enthusiastic sea lion welcoming committee swims up to visitors in Ocean Light II’s Zodiac; a surfing sea lion gets flipped out of the wave; hooded nudibranch; sunflower sea star; Jenn Broom, owner, and Chris Tulloch, skipper of Ocean Light II; sea otter wrapped in kelp (a good way to sleep); orcas fishing in formation; sea kayaking before breakfast; a humpback whale fluke during a hunting dive; sea stars; hunting humpback scooping up small fish before using the bristle-like baleen that line its mouth as a sieve; Donna Jacobs, Diplomat publisher and Mike Beedell, wildlife guide and contributing Diplomat photographer.

: The ocean water is unbroken for kilometres, except for a very small reef that serves as a playground for sea lions who line up to wait for a wave to ride.

: Bald eagles abound along the Vancouver Island coast, especially during salmon-spawning season.

: Pacific white-sided dolphins race alongside the yacht and play in the wake.