Sea kayaking with the sea lions at Fanny Bay, B.C.

by Keith and Heather Nicol

Heather checking out the sea lions

    Friday, November 14 was another sunny day with light winds and so we decided to head to Fanny Bay where we had heard there were sea lions just offshore and a place to launch sea kayaks next to the wharf. Fanny Bay is 20 kilometers south of Courtenay, B.C. along the old island highway. We had not visited Fanny Bay before but it didn’t take us long to hear the sea lions which had hauled out on a raft just in front of the wharf. The GPS coordinates for where we parked are: 10 U 0367671 E and 5485591 N. We launched our sea kayaks just before high tide which meant we had just a short carry to the water and we initially paddled out to the sea lions. We didn’t get too close since these are big animals with a large mouth and after getting some photos we headed for the headland to the south. The weather was perfect for paddling despite the cool 5 C temperatures. The flat calm conditions made paddling easy and we explored the shoreline for 45 minutes before heading back to check out the sea lions again. This is a great place to paddle if you want to photograph the sea lions and the other bird life in the area. 

The sea lions enjoying the sun

Fanny  Bay is great spot for sea birds and sea lions