Seals in Anyox BC - May 2024

On my 3rd day in Anyox, I was walking back from watching the sunset when off in the bay I spotted several little seal heads popping up and down from the water. I pulled out my camera and telephoto lens but the seals continued to tease me by playfully popping their heads up and then suddenly disappearing, making me wonder where they might pop up again. After trying for way too long to get a good photo, I gave up and proceeded on with my plans for the night. Tonight I would be staying up late to shoot the stars, do some creative work with my lights in the power plant and hope to maybe see the Northern Lights. I was blessed with a beautiful night of a half moon, bright stars and a beautiful show in the skies by the ever changing aurora borealis. I stayed up to take in this night, finally returning to my sea can accommodations at 2am. When I returned to the barge where we were staying, I wandered over to the back side dock when I heard 5 very loud splashes of something jumping in the water - it was the seals! They like to sleep on the dock at night. I decided that even though it was very late, that I was going to wake up before sunrise and hope to catch them before they wake up and swim off. On Thursday morning after barely 3 hours of sleep, I quietly tip-toed over the rear dock where to my excitement, there were two seals just laying on their bellies looking around. The seal on the left was oblivious and couldn’t care less if someone was sneaking up to take its photo. However, the right seal was onto me immediately, although it couldn’t see me - it knew I was there and its wide eyes in my photos show its state of alertness. With every quiet snap of my shutter, the right seal grew more concerned, I stayed well hidden so it wouldn’t see me and I was able to get several great photos of these two seal friends on a quiet Anyox morning, before they headed off to hunt for food and to do whatever seals do all day!