B.C. researcher mapping Vancouver Island spawning grounds from space<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cOn Dec. 31 (2025), the barking was so loud I said, \u2018I\u2019ve got to go see this, I have to go check this out\u2019. So I went. To my surprise, I estimated more than 500, which I had never imagined seeing so many there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He counted 40 Stellars roaring and the balance of California sea lions barking up a storm in a \u201cloud cacophony.\u201d That day, there were so many that they filled the small rock between Lesser and Greater Trial Island, with hundreds taking to the land on Greater Trial Island as well. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a positive sign for their populations, and he still has his fingers crossed \u2013 hesitantly \u2013 it\u2019s a harbinger of a herring recovery. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot of juvenile herring in Greater Victoria in the last year or two, but it\u2019s still only a fraction of what used to be here,\u201d he said. \u201cThe lack of herring in our area is still a major source of concern. This is what makes me dream a little, this is a sign something could be happening in herring.\u201d<\/p>\n
The previous peak was 280 of the animals counted using aerial images in February 2025. <\/p>\n
By Jan. 5, the numbers dwindled to five sea lions on the islet and \u201cbarely 200\u201d on Greater Trial Island. <\/p>\n
But other tidbit observations have enticed the naturalist this winter. A moulting northern elephant seal was observed in early December, but its tags couldn\u2019t be seen to confirm identity. He hoped it was the famous Emerson, who gained a multitude of fans after popping up on beaches across Greater Victoria.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bump in the seal population as well, which bodes well for the uptick in orca buffet visits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cacophony of 500 sea lions ring out 2025 off Trial Islands near Oak Bay Published 5:30 am Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[9,18,440,19,17,138291,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-271594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-oak-bay","14":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115852066374126274","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}