The chaos of nature was on full display this weekend as a whale watching tour witnessed a humpback whale trying to protect a seal from hungry orcas near Sooke.

The encounter occurred on Oct. 4 in the Juan de Fuca Strait west of Sooke, according to Mollie Cameron, a captain and naturalist with Sooke Whale Watching who saw the situation unfold.

She says the tour saw the humpback whale, identified as BCX1377 – or Nike – trying to protect a seal that was hiding inside a kelp bed from a group of Bigg’s killer whales.

“Throughout the encounter, Nike repeatedly positioned himself between the seal and killer whales in an attempt to thwart their attack,” said the Pacific Whale Watch Association in a social media post Monday.

Cameron says that Nike circled the kelp bed that the seal was hiding i

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