When Douw Hattingh rounded the bend on Kennedy Lake on Sunday morning, he was treated to the sight of a sea lion causing traffic delays on Highway 4.
“Initially, we thought it was an accident, so we slowed down and then came around the corner and we were surprised to see a sea lion on the highway,” he said.
The Nanoose Bay resident had been in Tofino for a weekend getaway with friends and was driving east when he came across the curious sight of Tofino RCMP officers diverting traffic around a sea lion that had made its way onto Highway 4 several kilometres away from the ocean.
There’s no cellular phone reception at that stretch of Highway 4, so someone must have seen the sea lion and driven toward Tofino to call it in, Hattingh said.
“He must have come up Kennedy River hunting, or whatever they were doing, and then ended up in the lake,” he said.
Seeing the sea lion was the highlight of his trip, he said. “I wish we stayed to see what happened, but you don’t want to back traffic up.”
There were just a few cars lining up on the road in either direction at the time he went past the sea lion about 10 a.m., Hattingh said.
DriveBC is not warning of any travel delays on Highway 4, but a temporary road sign has been erected on a section of Highway 4 at a spot about 40 kilometres east of Tofino, according to its website.
Paul Cottrell, head of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans marine mammal unit, said in an interview Monday the sea lion eventually went back into Kennedy Lake after a few hours on the highway.
Cottrell said DFO fisheries officers and a conservation officer from Tofino had a live transport trailer en route and were preparing to move the sea lion if it didn’t move on its own. A Tofino RCMP member stayed with the animal and helped caution traffic.
“After a few hours on that highway, he must have figured the traffic was too much and he made a bee-line back into the lake,” Cottrell said. “It was not a natural setting to him and [he] was likely very confused.”
He said the sea lion weighed between 300 and 400 pounds and posed a “significant risk” to itself and drivers on the highway.
“It could have been killed if it got struck, and that might have caused injuries to people as well, so we’re happy it ended well,” Cottrell said.
He said five years ago a seal ended up being struck and killed on Highway 99 in South Surrey. The car that hit the animal was “severely damaged and the people shaken up pretty good,” Cottrell said.
“You have a situation like this and someone might swerve and end up in the ditch or hitting a tree … that’s not a good outcome."
Cottrell said the sea lion was likely following fish up the Kennedy River from the ocean and got disoriented when it swam into Kennedy Lake. A boat launch near the highway was where the sea lion likely emerged, thinking it was a way back to the ocean, he said.
“We are hoping the animal finds its way back to the river and to the ocean again,” Cottrell said. “We’ll monitor if we can, but Kennedy Lake is so huge.”
This isn’t the first time that a big sea lion has gone astray.
There was a similar case in 2021 when a Steller sea lion ended up on a gravel forestry road near Port Hardy, about six kilometres from the ocean. Authorities said he likely travelled up a creek.
In 2019, a California sea lion nicknamed James Pond, hauled up on a deck in the Sunshine Coast, also likely arriving via a creek. Marine mammal staffers tranquillized him to return him to the ocean.
Anyone concerned about a marine mammal can call the B.C. marine mammal response network at 1-800-465-4336. Or email [email protected] or go to VHF radio, channel 16.
Cottrell said the person who called the response network did the right thing. “It could have ended much differently if the RCMP hadn’t been there."
