sea lions

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LilJoRt6

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hi all.I DID swim with the California sea lions today at the aquarium of Niagara Falls.The current in the tank was strong-so I missed the door to the exit cave 4 TIMES AROUND---lol! With about 100 spectators.......maybe they didn't notice..but it was a good experience and will do it again soon.
 
Sea lions...aren't they a kick? I often have encounters with them while diving off the California coast. I also read in a recent Dive Training issue that the navy has used trained sea lions to protect ships and other assets from divers with bad intentions by noosing their legs. It's an interesting article and not hard to believe after having my fins poked a few times.
 
I have experienced them a number of times myself in several locations.

Last winter I was diving Los Islotes near La Paz in the Gulf of California. Had just entered the water from my Zodiac and didn't have my fins on, the reg in my hand, etc. A "juvenile" sea lion jumped right on top of me pushing me down all the way to the bottom (~20 ft). I had to struggle with it to get it off me and find my reg. Not my idea of "play" but it was funny after the fact.

Also have had them bite me all over, and my camera lens as well (made for an interesting shot). Several of our passengers (I was the diver/videographer/marine biologist on a small cruise ship) were (playfully) bitten to the point of drawing blood.

Remember that sea lions can carry diseases that are transmissable to humans. I never had them break my skin since most of the nips were on my wetsuit.

Dr. Bill
 
These lions were born in captivity except for 1 of the 5. They are all female so not too big! As there are 38 volunteer divers, including myself; they are very used to having people around.The pool is cleaned at least once a day, so they often have human company in their home. Diamond: the youngest and Jody, the oldest both have cataracts. So we are told to hum to announce our presence to avoid underwater collisions.
 
Witnesses a 'Giant Moray' In Jamaica, all coiled up in a cave. I estimated the beast had to have been at least 10ft.

Green bloody eyes and jaws of death!
 
Just to add a word or two to Bill's comment ... most of my encounters with sea lions have been anywhere from neutral (brief swimbys) to playful (juveniles at Santa Barbara Island). Once I was even drawn into a game of keep-away with a piece of yellow caution tape the sea lions had found (they swam it by and dropped it near me so that I'd pick it up and swim off with it).

Once, though, I was buzzed near the park boundary at Casino Point on Catalina by a sea lion that seemed more like it was staking out its turf -- circled by us, blowing bubbles at us and showing teeth. Made it hard to lay the tape measure on the sand floor for our navigation class. ;-)

I also recently spoke with a DM for an L.A.-area dive shop who said she was given a couple of hostile bumps by a large sea lion at Santa Barbara Island. She suspected that this was a mom protecting a small offspring that the diver had gotten too close to.

Also on the marine mammal front, back around March several divers on a boat I was on had an interesting interaction with a large harbor seal at one of the coves toward the west end of Catalina. It came up within a foot or so of one diver group and stopped; "It seemed as though it wanted its tummy rubbed, so I did, and it seemed to like it," one diver told me. The same harbor seal abruptly came up from underneath and appeared out of nowhere, its face up about a foot from my face, as I was freediving in a few feet of water (that was a memorable shock!). My first impulse was to bring my camera up to my face and press the shutter button; apparently none too thrilled with the strobes, it swam off, not to be seen again on that visit.
 
FYI - Apparently the Aquarium of Niagara is looking for volunteers as they just did a mailing which we recieved this week.

I have no idea what's involved, but if I was closer I would check it out.

Info can be found on their website at

Volunteer diver program
 

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