A Breed Apart

Magazine

Sea wolves thrive on the bounty of intertidal zones of the Great Bear Rainforest. They are powerful swimmers and genetically distinct from their mainland kin. Yet the province regards them as vermin. Maybe it shouldn’t.

Two years ago, environmentalist and photojournalist Ian McAllister was documenting the March herring spawn near Bella Bella on British Columbia’s west coast when he spotted wolves feasting on the eggs near the shoreline. Wearing a dry suit, he grabbed his Nikon D4, swam toward the predators and snapped a remarkable split image of a wolf staring directly into the lens with its legs positioned below the surface and its head above.