A harbour seal found itself in a precarious situation while trying to eat fish off Vancouver Island.
On Thursday, a group of whale watchers spotted "Zillion" the humpback whale feeding on a school of small bait fish just southwest of Victoria.
Zillion opened her jaws and lunged towards the surface hoping to get fish.
Instead, she caught a harbour seal.
Tom Filipovic of Eagle Wing Tours had his camera ready and captured the incident.
Pacific Whale Watch Association executive director Erin Gless believes the harbour seal was likely feeding on the same small fish and found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Gless added that humpback whales do not eat seals, but do eat small fish and krill.
Zillion repeatedly opened her jaw and lowered her head into the water trying to get the seal out.
"While they have very large mouths, their throats are roughly the size of a grapefruit, so they can't swallow something as large as a seal,” says Gless.
People on the vessel can be heard questioning if it was a bird in the humpback whale's mouth.
"We occasionally see humpback whales get small birds stuck in their mouths while feeding, but a seal was a huge surprise,” says Gless.
The seal was eventually able to swim away from Zillion.
