So here's a few answers to some of the questions that have come up in this thread. I was working the yearly shipwreck monitoring and assessment survey that NOAA and the National Park Service carry out. This trip we had several members of the Park Services Submerged Resource Center aboard who needed some still images of kelp beds and sea lions for a couple of projects they're wotking on with the Discovery and History channels and National Geographic. So in the middle of doing UW archaeology, we stopped at Gull Island, backside of Santa Cruz Island for the needed kelp/sea lion picts. I was buddied with Ian Williams a Park Service Enforcement Ranger who was interested in trying his hand at UW video while I was going to be shooting stills. Almost as soon as we reached the edge of the kelp I was approached by my friend. She was also interested in the sound Ian's video camera was making and as you can see she would come over and lay her head on the housing trying to figure out what that sound was, but her real interest was moi! What is in the You Tube video is about half of the actual footage Ian shot, but it cut together well as it is.
I'm told that seals don't have the tactile sense in their flippers as humans do in their hands, so they "feel" with their mouths like dogs. If you watch carefully, she is "nibbling" me all over (woo hoo!) but there were no bites, just "feels." As for the final scene, she had very genlty nibbled my cheek and then was mouthing the nose-piece on my mask when I cracked-up and laughed. The exhalation spooked her and she took off. Actually I was cracking up the whole time. I'm pushing something like 6,000 dives and this was the most fun I've had UW with my suit on...