'Never seen anything like this': Humpback whale catches unsuspecting seal off Vancouver Island

A Vancouver Island nature photographer says he has never seen anything like what his camera captured on a recent whale-watching excursion off Victoria.

Tomis Filipovic, a naturalist and photographer with Eagle Wing Tours, was photographing whales in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Thursday when a humpback whale surfaced with its mouth wide open to catch a group of small fish.

Caught up in the feeding frenzy was an unsuspecting harbour seal, which Filipovic photographed inside the whale's mouth as it closed.

"Luckily, a humpback's throat is only about as wide as a grapefruit, so it can't take in anything bigger than that," Filipovic said in an interview Monday. "And it was just sloshing the water around, trying to get this seal out of her mouth."

The whale, identified as "Zillion" by Filipovic and researchers at the Pacific Whale Watch Association, eventually managed to spit the seal back into the water unharmed.

"The seal ended up spilling out the side and going free," he said.

While Filipovic says birds will sometimes get caught by lunge-feeding whales, he has never seen it happen to another sea mammal.

"I have been whale watching for the last six years and have never seen anything like this happen," he said.

Humpbacks, which typically feed on small fish and krill by straining large volumes of water through their mouths, have surged in numbers off British Columbia in recent years.

The comeback has prompted conservationists to warn boaters to be extra cautious in areas that humpbacks frequent because the mammals are especially susceptible to vessel strikes due to their surface-feeding behaviour and unpredictable travel patterns.