There are two places right in Victoria, B.C. where you don't need a boat to see seals up close: The Oak Bay Marina and the James Bay Marina. The seals here are fairly tame because they were injured and helped by humans. They hang right around the marinas and beg for fish you can buy from the marina stores. I don't believe in feeding wild animals, but I've seen people do this and the seals will even clap and do little tricks for their food.

Any whale watching tour in and around Victoria will show you to the sea lions and seals. There is a huge gathering of sea lions at Race Rocks near Sooke - but you may not make it there if your whale watching boat travels to the Juan de Fuca Islands looking for orcas.

I have seen seals on the shore around Mystic Beach and East Sooke Park; however, they were too far away to photograph.

My wildlife book said thousands of sea lions gather around Nanaimo in the winter along log boons and they're easy to spot from shore. However, we didn't see a single sea lion when we visited in the winter of 2004. Apparently, sea lions patterns change depending on the fish so they probably don't hang out in that area anymore.

If you know of a good spot, please leave your advice (along with time of day and month of the year you spotted them) here: