A Vancouver Island nature photographer says he has never seen anything like what his camera captured on a recent whale-watching excursion off Victoria.
Tomis Filipovic, a naturalist and photographer with Eagle Wing Tours, was photographing whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Thursday when a humpback whale surfaced with its mouth wide open to catch a group of small fish.
Caught up in the feeding frenzy was an unsuspecting harbour seal, which Filipovic photographed inside the whale’s mouth as it closed.
The whale, identified as “Zillion” by Filipovic and researchers at the Pacific Whale Watch Association, quickly spat the seal back into the water unharmed.
“Luckily, a humpback’s throat is no bigger than a grapefruit, so the humpback sloshed the water around until it was set free,” Filipovic said in an emailed statement to CTV News.
“I have been whale watching for the last six years and have never seen anything like this happen,” he added.
Humpbacks, which typically feed on small fish and krill by straining large volumes of water through their mouths, have surged in numbers off British Columbia in recent years.
The comeback has prompted conservationists to warn boaters to be extra cautious in areas that humpbacks frequent because the mammals are especially susceptible to vessel strikes due to their surface-feeding behaviour and unpredictable travel patterns.