Diving with sea lions.

[Graeme Fraser]

My one encounter with a sea lion was at Balboa, Newport Beach.

A work colleague and I were on business for a week in California and decided to chill out at Newport Beach for the weekend. Still being jet lagged we fancied an early morning swim and, despite it being December, we thought it was pretty warm compared to UK waters.

After about 10 minutes bimbling about, I duck dived down and when I surfaced behind my mate he was treading water about 3ft from this big old sea lion. It was quickly apparent he hadn't noticed it, so I called out "who's your new mate then". Both he and the sea lion both turned and there was a comical moment when my mate clocked this beast, followed by a girly scream and much thrashing of limbs as he made his way to shore. He'd seen something in his peripheral vision but assumed it was me!

The locals on the pier seemed quite amused to see a couple of middle aged Brits acting like school kids on a day out at the seaside.

 

[Chavodel8en]

I'm always a little bit concerned about sea lions. Although they seem playful and merely curious, I understand that their actions may be territorial. But that kind of adds to the fun.

I've had a juvenile swim right up to my buddy, within arms reach of both of us and just sit there and stare at him. I didn't know if this was meant to be friendly or menacing. It was pretty fun, and I love getting buzzed by them, even by the big bulls, which happens much less frequently.

As I understand it, no diver has ever been killed by a sea lion, at least not around Monterey/Carmel, where I interact with them. If they wanted to, they could kill us as easily as we swat flies. That generally tells me that they mean us no harm. Otherwise, there would be a bunch of injured or dead divers at the Breakwater.

Also, my unscientific observation, I feel that they are getting more present and interactive around the Breakwater in recent years.

 

[eleniel]

I haven't encountered a sea lion yet, but I did end up nose to nose with a monk seal in Hawaii while freediving/snorkeling. I was just looking at cute fish, turned around and bam! Nose to nose with a super cute, curious monk seal - he swam around me a few times and took off up to the beach for a nap.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I remember having a Steller sea lion grab my fin in Cove 2 in Seattle. Was surprised at that. They came into the cove only when there were a lot of people.

 

[MichaelMc]

I love diving Monterey Breakwater with the sea lions. The adolescents seem to do exhales for fun in passing. I'm not sure how they judge us exhaling all the time. They don't normally run away when I exhale normally. I did have one swimming along the wall toward me do an abrupt U-turn when I unthinkingly did a big sudden exhale. They swam fast back along the wall, went deeper, then came back past me much lower. So that one seemed to read it very much as a 'go away' signal. I've never had a big one object to my being there. Though meeting a big one head to head while traveling the wall in opposite directions was shocking.

I've never had the sea lions to be chewy. More hanging nearby looking curious or cavorting back and fourth. They will do barrel rolls if I do. Sample size is likely n=20-30+ sea lions.

The harbor seals are more the ones that hug on my leg for a neck/back scratch or chew on my fin or leg covering inquisitively. They seem to understand 'no' about chewing on hands, toes, arms, hoses. Sample size on this is likely n=2 individuals over several interactions, one hanging out at at breakwater, one at monastery. They've also hung back then I'm in a bigger group. I had one as my nearby dive buddy for half a dive once at Breakwater middle reef.

A great part of our environment here, but always deserving respect.

 

[KevinNM]

Someone here a few years ago posted a picture of his float with a sea otter parked on it with the question amounting to ‘how can I legally get them to stop doing this?’

It looked terribly cute and he didn’t many helpful responses.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Someone here a few years ago posted a picture of his float with a sea otter parked on it with the question amounting to ‘how can I legally get them to stop doing this?’

It looked terribly cute and he didn’t many helpful responses.

They used to have a number of rafts for divers out at Edmonds Underwater Park, but then the sea lions took them over, so they ultimately removed them and just use buoys.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The sea otters at Breakwater like to make a game out of getting into the float tubes and bitting holes in the inner tube and watching it sink.
The sea lions are used to people and know they are harmless so they are pretty bold and will interact and play.
Sea lions are very smart, as smart or smarter than an intelligent breed of dog. Sea lions are easily trained to do all kinds of stuff, mostly for entertainment shows, but also including being researched by the military to be trained as underwater service animals.
Harbor seals like to play games too. An urchin diver friend of mine told me stories about when he was hard at work scooping up urchins with his rake when he would feel a tug on his fin. A playful harbor seal stole his jet fin and carried it off about 15’ and dropped it. As soon as he got over there to get it the seal would grab it and move it away another 15’ or so and wait for him to get over there to grab it. This would go on until he was out of hookah line and couldn’t get to it. They had to figure out ways to strap fins on that made it impossible for the seals to pull them off.
At Gerstle cove in Sonoma County (once a popular training spot), there used to be a resident harbor seal that loved people. When divers would show up she would bark until people got in. From there she would play with them nonstop buzzing them, nuzzling them, swimming around through their legs, playing with all their gear, etc. when the divers got out she would come up to the beach and bark until more divers got in to play with her. She had a name but I can’t remember what it was.

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

Harbor seals like to play games too.

Don't get me started on Harbor Seals. Love 'em but they can be really annoying. Twice over the years while I've been diving at night for lobster I've had a huge Harbor Seal "join" me for the dive. It's hard to describe but they will come up under my right arm and hold their body against the right side of my body. They will then press the left side of their head to the right side of my head so that every time I shine my dive light on something and turn my head to look, their eyes are pointed in the same direction as me and the light. If my light reveals a fish the Harbor Seal fancies for dinner it will blast out from under my arm, grab the fish, and then swim a loop so it dives back under my arm and head against head and the hunt starts all over again. Little sh*t heads. Scares the lobster I'm hunting for sure. I've spoken with a few folks over the years who have experienced this. Very unnerving at first. They are playful during the daytime.

 

[Bob DBF]

Most of the time they are a lot of fun, but then I ran into a juvenile delinquent sea lion off the Channel Islands SoCal. I was diving wit my grown daughter and the sea lion wanted to play aggressively and the score was us 0, SeaLion 1 tear in daughters wet suit, 1 ruined wetsuit boot with holes and 1 set of teeth marks with accompanying blood on my ankle, before running him(?) off.

Never discount a bulls**t dive story from an old diver, it could save your ass, I figure it may have saved mine if he had decided to play harder.

I accompanied my daughter back to the boat, and finished the dive solo. I didn’t know I was bleeding till I got back to the boat, and it wasn’t bad by then. A bit harder he would have had my Achilles’ tendon.


Now the seal and “fish on a stick” story I have to tell in person.


Bob