How to handle "friendly" or "curious" sea life?

[Lexy]

Diving out in So. California, many divers remark about encountering sea lions. They report sea lions following them, watching, biting their fin and attempting to steal their snorkle.

So what are the appropriate actions/procedure in handling an "overly friendly" sea lion who wants to steal your snorkle or chomp on your fin? Do they just stop, get bored and move on? I'm curious.... so that I will know how to handle the situation when it happens. First and foremost I'd take a guess that staying calm would be #1.

How about other sea creatures? Do dolphins swim toward divers? What's the procedure for dolphins?

I don't remember covering the friendly or curious creature topic in my courses - just the shark topic.

[MyDiveLog]

I usually clip my snorkel off whenever I dive, but PARTICULARLY when I'm diving in an area where I know I'll likely enounter Sea Lions (i.e. Deadman's or the oddly-named Seal Rock). Last year we had a young Sea Lion that ventured regularly over to Shaw's cove, 'buzzing' divers and nipping at their fins. Sea Lions, particularly the younger ones, are a playful sort. They love to play a game of "keep away," which is fun until they grab your snorkel, taking your mask along with it. If you dive much around Seal Rock you'll inevitably see a number of snorkel & mask sets lying on the bottom for this reason.

Having said all that, there are some things I'd recommend if you do encounter playful sea lions.
- You're right, stay calm.
- You're also right, most of the time they are "inviting" you to play by zipping through your legs, blowing bubbles in your face, and tugging on your fin.
- Probably most important is to begin understanding the social structure of the sea lions, their actions, and when you are dealing with the dominant male. As I said, the younger sea lions will swim playfully around you, inviting you to play . Sometimes they'll even bring up items to play keep away with, like mollusks or rocks...or your buddy's mask & snorkel. While I mostly keep my hands in, sometimes I'll 'play catch' with them. I'm particularly careful about keeping my fingers away from their mouth. A small 'nip' from them might be very painful. If you decide not to 'play' they will mostly likely get bored and move onto something else.
- Keep your eye out for the dominant male, as I said. He's pretty easy to tell because 1) He's usually darn large and 2) The other sea lions are deferential toward him. If he ventures out to check you out you'll see the other sea lions back off to a distance. You're not at risk unless you do something stupid (like I did when I first started diving). The bull male dropped to the bottom in front of me, so I did the same, He moved closer ... so I did the same. He humped his back, sticking his nose out to touch my mask. We sat there at a standoff for a while, until he 'smacked' my mask with his nose and swam off. Being intrigued by this action, I did some reading and realized that he was displaying classic signs of aggression and that I was pretty stupid. Live & learn I guess: Don't play chicken with the big dog.

Dolphins: Unless you become a re-breather diver you likely won't see much of them. I've heard about a few divers being 'buzzed' by dolphins, it's rare. I think, like whales, they don't like the 'roar' of the regulator bubbles.

Harbor Seals: If you do night dives when they're around they can be a downright pain in the butt. There's a particularly pesky one at Casino Point that barges in wherever you shin a light, bumping you out of the way and zooming in to see if you've found something to eat. The first few minutes it seemed fun, getting close enough to pet the thing. The last 40 minutes of the dive it was downright annoying and we basically gave up on the dive.

Garabaldi: When they are nesting these normally friendly fish become a bit more aggressive. If you come upon a nest turn your hand so that fingers are down and wiggle the fingers. This seems to excite them and they get all agitated. I've heard of divers doing this with an orange glove, which seems to create an even more anticipated reaction. I used to think of Garabaldi as these cute, harmless, little fish that were pretending to be tough during the mating season, until I saw one rip a star fish to shreds and eat it ... makes me watch how close they come to my fingers during mating season.

Have fun!

[oceandjinn]

Sea snakes are inquisitive particularly in the pacific.In that case just dont move coz they will bite you pierce your suit with serriously small but thin teeth and you die sounds dramatic but if you have no antivene close I dont remember the time but .......

[drbill]

Sea snakes are inquisitive particularly in the pacific.In that case just dont move coz they will bite you pierce your suit with serriously small but thin teeth and you die sounds dramatic but if you have no antivene close I dont remember the time but .......

I don't remember any problems with sea snakes while diving in that region. Although I'm not a specialist in their biology, I believe their small teeth are located in the back of the mouth and I don't think they can bite through even a 3mm wetsuit. My understanding is that the most vulnerable part of your body is between the fingers where they could deliver a potentially deadly bite.

As for sea lions, Lexy, they are one of the reasons I stopped diving with snorkels... too many stolen by the pesky critters, at least while filming at Los Islotes. Keep your hands close to your body... they do have diseases which can be transmitted to humans if they bite you. I find at least here on Catalina that they do not interact much with me if I don't respond, but I've had them seriously interfere with my filming on some mainland dives.

[isurus]

I was never bothered by seasnakes in my time in the pacific but I did see a lot of both sea krait species and I think its fair to say they'll get a lot closer to you than you would allow such a venemous snake to if you were on land. They are pretty docile (the sort of calm that comes from packing bad***** chemical weaponry) and if you stay calm there should be absolutely no issue. I can envisage a scenario where a snake-phobic person freaked out around one and got into some trouble.

[alcina]

Sea snakes (especially olives) are abundant on many of our dive sites and they love to get up close and personal They are some of my favourite critters. You'd have to work extremely hard to piss a sea snake off so it would bite you - mostly it's the fishermen hauling them up in the nets that get done. Underwater they aren't the slightest bit interested in biting you if you aren't squeezing them or pulling on them, imho.

I often have one or two wrapped around a bare ankle, up around my neck or entwined in my hair when I don't have a hood on. No biggie. They ride with me for a while then cruise off. Sometimes one will adopt you and the only way to be rid of him is to pass him off to your buddy They can be a little too friendly -they seem to like to look through the viewfinder of my camera and you soon get used to having one nestled against your chin or cheek.

[fmw625]

A dive buddy had a morey eel move up into his BCD in Cozumel getting away from a big grooper. The eel was using his BCD for protection. Dive buddy didn't freek out, remained calm and still. The eel soon went his merry way. Someone in the group got it all on film. They gave him a copy later.

[mislav]

Very interesting thread. Please, keep it coming. :popcorn:

[Mantasscareme]

Garabaldi: When they are nesting these normally friendly fish become a bit more aggressive. If you come upon a nest turn your hand so that fingers are down and wiggle the fingers. This seems to excite them and they get all agitated. I've heard of divers doing this with an orange glove, which seems to create an even more anticipated reaction. I used to think of Garabaldi as these cute, harmless, little fish that were pretending to be tough during the mating season, until I saw one rip a star fish to shreds and eat it ... makes me watch how close they come to my fingers during mating season.

Have fun!

Want to piss off a garabaldi? Find its "nest", then take a handfull of sea urchins and put them in the nest. The garabaldi will methodically pick up each of the sea urchins, carry them a good ten feet away, and place them on the bottom there. Afterwards it will make sure you dont do it again. Little party trick I picked up from the DMs on the Spectre. Impress your dive buddies!

[tstormdiver]

I just got back off a trip in the bahamas. I had 3 Remoras try to attach to me during my safety stop. Having never seen one before & not know what it was or what it wanted, I opted to quickly cut my safety stop short by a minute. The crew of the boat got a good laugh from it. I found out to my dismay that it wouldn't have hurt me, but not knowing, I didn't want to chance it. Yes, I guess I'm a big chicken.