Summary for November 19 2019 We were greeted into this sunny day by vocal sea lions hauled out on their favourite rocks on Hanson Island. The sun was very welcome by our solar panels recharging the batteries after a few days of bad weather forcing us to use the generator. We decided to spend most of this beautiful day processing wood for the winter to come. At 11:30am, Claire was looking for humpback blows from the lab deck when she saw a weird looking seal swimming near the June Cove mooring. As she looked through the scope, she realized it was not a seal but a sea otter! She grabbed her camera instantly and took a few shots to share with the team. The sea otter only surfaced a few times while travelling north and quickly cleared our view. Sea otters are a rare sight here in Blackney Pass. According to Oceana, they are foragers, mostly eating hard-shelled invertebrates such as sea urchins. By keeping the population of kelp-grazing sea urchins to a minimum, sea otters are vital to the health and stability of the kelp forest, and in turn, all the species that depend on kelp forests for survival.  OrcaLab 20 Nov 2019 22:38:58 PST