When it\u2019s a nice day outside, even in January you\u2019ll likely find Shauna Bradford, her husband Dylan and their six year old daughter Tayla in their boat on the water near their home in Ladysmith.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing on the water and fishing means everything to us,\u201d said Shauna. <\/p>\n
And that\u2019s where they were crabbing and fishing Sunday, Jan. 18 when they had an experience of a lifetime, all captured on video.<\/p>\n
Watch below:<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s right here, he\u2019s right here. Oh my God,\u201d Bradford can be heard saying in the video.<\/p>\n
You can hear the excitement and maybe a bit of nervousness in the voices of Bradford and her family.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe slowed down to go check our crab traps and my husband Dylan said oh look there\u2019s some orcas, oh wait there\u2019s another orca and then we noticed what looked like a seal in the middle of them,\u201d Bradford told CHEK News. <\/p>\n
The water then became calm and they thought the encounter was over, but it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn orca just came up right under the boat and the seal came right under the boat, almost like bonked into the side of the boat too,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Then, seeing a chance at survival the seal jumped out of the water, onto their boat and out of danger.<\/p>\n
It stayed in a well between the main motor and kicker motor as the killer whales circled the boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s OK,\u201d Bradford can be heard saying to the seal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe whales were circling us, they could see the seal on the back of the boat after it hopped in and the whales were kind of like toying with us,\u201d she continued. <\/p>\n
For six year-old Tayla it was a front row seat to nature as the three killer whales hunted for the seal but her mom says it was also a valuable learning moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wanted us to start the motor and go but we had to let her know it\u2019s not as easy as that you can\u2019t do that when you\u2019re in a certain distance of a whale.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says the entire encounter felt like 30 minutes but it was closer to 10 or 15 and after a while the seal felt safe enough to make a swim for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter about ten minutes or so, just slowly it kind of looked at us like OK, I think I\u2019m going to make a run for it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And sure enough as the whales went off in one direction the seal appeared to take off in the other. They assume it made a safe getaway, as they too fired up and called it a day on the water with memories to last a lifetime.<\/p>\n
You can follow the Bradford\u2019s adventures on Instagram here.<\/a><\/p>\n \t