Saturday

 

It was a long day on the boat on Wednesday.  Not only did we see scenery, glaciers, and icebergs, we saw sea lions.

 

 

 

 

And orcas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, spectacularly, sea lions and orcas at the same time; one sea-mammal-eating sea mammal pitted against another sea mammal.

 

 

 

Orcas patrolling right up against the rocks, withdrawing, returning.  Intelligent strategic creatures; velociraptors of the sea.

 

 

A roaring diving and splashing racket from the sea lions.  Surprisingly they didn’t all just jump up out of the water, they advanced, retreated, and advanced again.  It was almost like the sea lions were taunting the orcas as much as the orcas were taunting them.

 

The whales doing their own tail splashing.

 

 

We couldn’t know the entirety of the situation.  There was clearly an encounter between the two types of creatures.  Were there any winners or losers; were any whales fed or sea lions lives lost?  We couldn’t tell.  As the situation quieted down, we moved along.