Sea stars and photo bombs!

Vivian Island, a 30 minute boat ride from Comox marina has a stunning little underwater playground. This time of year sea lions call it home, and the clear, crisp winter water makes for some incredible underwater exploration. 

It's a good spot to observe sea lions with a little less chaos than the likes of Norris Rocks at Hornby Island. On a day like the one above, a few steller sea lions entered the water to check out us clumsy land dwellers. The interactions are often more personal here, with sea lions swimming to you, hovering, looking you in the eye, and then showing off their swimming skills, or playing catch with a pebble. 

The topography around Vivian Island also offers a wealth of other, much smaller marine life. Beautiful nudibranchs, anemones, cheeky little crabs, lingcod, hermit crabs battling for a new home, black eyed gobies... the longer you look at a spot, the more you see. Every square inch is home to something, even if it's teeny tiny marine life that at first glance you don't notice.  

Purple sea stars are a lovely colourful addition to any underwater habitat. As larger sunflower sea stars still continue to suffer from the "wasting disease" that began in 2013 (see video below), these little purple ones are a delight to see and always make for a fun photo op. 

As Trish went in for a closer look, I could see this cheeky steller sea lion descend from the service, and swim right behind her - they love to see what you're looking at. He then swam away at a speed no human could ever match. 
It was a playful little move from a curious and cute creature. A pleasant reminder that we were in his backyard, and we felt most privileged to be there!