SeaLions to Scallps - Horby Island BC

Last week I made my second annual visit to the Stellar Sealions of Hornby Island BC. We dove with Hornby Island Diving, who have a fantastic lodge and run a first rate diving operation. It's a really pretty location with a lot of great dive sites. The big draw is the Sealions, but we did a lot of other fun sites that sported 70 - 80ft visibility and a lot of macro subjects for variety.

Last year I used a Nikon 12-24 to shoot the sealions. I picked up a Sigma 15FE for the trip this year and was quite happy with the results. I'm more than a little disenchanted with the soft corners of the 12-24, and think I'll stick with the Sigma for a while.

Selected highlights below, and you can see the whole gallery here:

http://www.pbase.com/davehicks/hornbymarch...;view=slideshow

Puget Sound King Crab

Decorator Crab sporting a spiffy translucent tunicate

Stellar Sea Lion with lots of personality!

Extreme Close-Up

Bubbles!

Giant Pacific Octopus keeping an eye on me

Spiny Pink Scallop with many more eyes!

nice stuff Dave, looks like home!

no 6 Gills? I guess too early in the season...

nice stuff Dave, looks like home!

no 6 Gills? I guess too early in the season...

I think the Six Gills come to visit in July / August. March is Herring season when they come to spawn and then die. There were herring carcases all over the seabed, leaving fat and happy sealions in their wake...

Always wanted to dive with Sealions. What is the best time of year to dive there? I like the bubbles shot..cool

Always wanted to dive with Sealions. What is the best time of year to dive there? I like the bubbles shot..cool

Definately March. That's when they come to feed for a couple of months. And it really is fun to dive with them. It's pretty amazing when a 1000 pound animal sneaks up on you and you don't know he's there until it starts tugging on your fins!

Those were all shot with the Sigma? They're great! Really like those sea lions and the Octopus- I think i need to make the (short) trip there sometime.

Those were all shot with the Sigma? They're great! Really like those sea lions and the Octopus- I think i need to make the (short) trip there sometime.

The SeaLions were all shot with the Sigma 15FE. The others were all done with either the Nikon 60mm or 105mm. The Octo was actually shot with the 105mm. This would normally be pretty much impossible, but the water was so clear that I was able to get far enough back and still get a good shot of his whole body.

Is that visibility pretty typical for the site or did you just happened to go on the right day?

Is that visibility pretty typical for the site or did you just happened to go on the right day?

The Pacific Northwest is pretty green and murky in general with vis around 15 - 30 feet on an average day. But you can get 50+ foot visibility in the colder months, especially up along Vancouver Island. The Octo shot was taken on a really calm day on a deep site, probably 80 FSW or so and the vis was great.