Sea Lion Beach
Sea lions piling up, arguing and falling asleep on each other, a live webcam on a rocky BC haul-out.
About this view
A rocky beach on Hanson Island, off the north-east coast of Vancouver Island, that sea lions use as a haul-out, the place they come ashore to rest between fishing trips. The live webcam looks along the rocks at water level, close enough to hear the argument.
Sea lions haul out in heaps and treat each other as terrain. The routine is a slow churn of animals climbing over sleeping neighbours to reach a better rock, a short roar, and then everyone settling again. Bald eagles work the shoreline above them, and the tide steadily changes how much beach there is to fight over.
British Columbia runs on Pacific Time, UTC−8 and UTC−7 in summer. Numbers build through autumn and winter, when Steller and California sea lions gather in the strait for the herring; summer is quieter. Low tide gives the most beach, and the most animals on it.
