If you circumnavigate the largest island in the Inian Islands group, you will travel through Middle Passage. Let it be known there is a gang of sea lions waiting for you, and you are trespassing on their turf. At first, prior to entering Middle Passage, we were surprised by how close they would surface to the kayaks, maybe 60 or 70 feet away. Then, as we entered Middle Passage, the sea lions got very bold and it wasn't just 1 or 2 sea lions trying to intimidate us, it was packs of 5 or 6 surfacing 15 or 20 feet away. At times they appeared to be chasing us. The sea lion's curiosity of us is only surpassed by our curiosity of them as seen here with me photographing the sea lions from the red kayak as the events unfolded. Captain Eric of the Abyssinia is in the blue kayak with a front row seat.
The upper photo shows two very close brutes over the stern of my red kayak. In the lower photo, 3 sea lions can be seen over the bow of Eric's blue kayak and 1 very large brute can be seen between Eric and me. This encounter with the sea lions was by far the most exciting wildlife experience we had in Alaska. Our friend from New Zealand, Ron, is credited with these photos.
The sea lion encounter lasted for over two hours as we paddled into Middle Passage and peaked with a very close flurry of activity as shown in these pictures.
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