Childhood friendship with dolphin inspires B.C. man to pursue passion on ocean

You hear them before you see them. But before that, Gary Sutton says, you smell them.

“They stink,” Gary laughs after focusing his camera on dozens of sea lions lounging around the marina. “They stink, but I do love them.”

But sea lions can’t compare to his true love.

“At the end of the day, they are on the menu for my favourite species, killer whales,” Gary smiles.

But before he saw orcas in B.C. as an adult, Gary was befriended by a dolphin in Florida as a boy.

“I still remember being completely awestruck,” Gary says.

Young Gary was sitting beside the ocean on vacation when a dolphin swam up to him and started making sounds.

"I didn’t really know what to do as I sat there with it,” Gary says.

The dolphin seemed to be just as curious about him as he was about it.

“Then I started walking along the sea wall and (the dolphin) would follow me down and do barrel rolls.”

And it kept happening every day after. For the rest of Gary’s vacation, the dolphin would approach the boy and they would go for daily walks together.

“You’re looking down and it’s looking back at you with this contemplative eye,” Gary says. “There’s something deeper there.”

It inspired an enduring interest in underwater animals which later led to meeting a curious baby fur seal (that would bite his GoPro camera) and one of its equally exuberant parents (who lunged out of the water at him).

It also led to questioning his unrelated career.

“And I just remember being home one night and having a really terrified moment of seeing my whole life down the road,” Gary says.

So the next day, Gary started looking for a way to pursue his passion, and moved across the country to the west coast.

“I was just excited to chase some sort of dream to work with whales,” Gary says.

He volunteered at an aquarium, which led to working as a naturalist on the ocean, and eventually trying to capture orcas with his camera — including one particular whale named Blackberry.

“He’s kind of the supermodel of the southern resident world,” Gary smiles.

Thanks to Blackberry's unique markings and charming personality, Gary was able to spot and connect with him regularly.

“And show a mutual curiosity,” Gary says. “Much like that dolphin did.”

That led Gary to taking countless pictures of Blackberry in the water, and one extraordinary photo of him leaping completely out if it.

“And the fact that I was there in the right position to capture it is, for me, better than winning the lottery.”

And now that Gary works full-time researching ocean animals, he couldn’t be more grateful to that dolphin who inspired the boy to keep connecting with the water in wonder.

“You know, life is too short to waste time and not do what you love,” Gary smiles.