Diving with sea lions.

[grf88]

I did a number of dives last year with the Sea lions of Hornby Island and it was great fun. We were provided with hard hats and I am glad we were as they do like the squishy feel of hoods. They do get rather overpowering at times and can easily remove your fins or other articles. I will be back for more.

 

[Akimbo]

I was about 13 years old and decided it was time to meet some sea lions. I bought a block of frozen squid sold for fishing, put it in a mesh game bag, and start swimming along Monterey's breakwater that is home to a large sea lion colony. Visibility was less than 10'/3M and it was getting darker.

I suddenly notice a strange momentary current that pushed me sideways. Weird, but I kept swimming. It happened again pushing me to the other side. Must be from swells hitting the rocks. The third time I caught a glimpse of a large black hole sucking up what little light there was... except with teeth. The wisdom of this adventure was immediately reevaluated, the game bag was turned inside out, and I reversed course at full speed.

Fortunately, some playful sea lion pups found me in Carmel Bay a few dives later where visibility was 4-5x better and mom was busy out of sight. I think the puppy analogy is misleading. It is much easier to ignore a puppy than a curious sea lion pup. Dives with sea lions are easily my most memorable.

 

[lexvil]

I was about 13 years old and decided it was time to meet some sea lions. I bought a block of frozen squid sold for fishing, put it in a mesh game bag, and start swimming along Monterey's breakwater that is home to a large sea lion colony. Visibility was less than 10'/3M and it was getting darker.

I suddenly notice a strange momentary current that pushed me sideways. Weird, but I kept swimming. It happened again pushing me to the other side. Must be from swells hitting the rocks. The third time I caught a glimpse of a large black hole sucking up what little light there was... except with teeth. The wisdom of this adventure was immediately reevaluated, the game bag was turned inside out, and I reversed course at full speed.

Fortunately, some playful sea lion pups found me in Carmel Bay a few dives later where visibility was 4-5x better and mom was busy out of sight. I think the puppy analogy is misleading. It is much easier to ignore a puppy than a curious sea lion pup. Diving with sea lions are easily my most memorable.

I’ve felt those odd currents from time to time, sometimes it’s sealions, meaning sometimes it’s ?.

 

[AdivingBel]

Had an absolute blast diving with sea lions in the Sea of Cortez.

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

I’ve felt those odd currents from time to time, sometimes it’s sealions, meaning sometimes it’s ?.

I've posted this article I wrote in 2001 before, but the reference to odd currents reminded me of it.

High Adventure at the High Spot ? Chance Encounter with a Great White Shark - California Diving News

 

[lexvil]

I've posted this article I wrote in 2001 before, but the reference to odd currents reminded me of it.

High Adventure at the High Spot ? Chance Encounter with a Great White Shark - California Diving News

I remember reading this, I’ve yet to see a GW but I know they have seen me.

 

[Schwob]

In 2016 we were geared up and ready to back-roll off our 19' RHIB offshore of Corona Del Mar (Newport Beach, CA). Just then a juvenile female sea lion lept out of the water and onto the pontoon next to me. Her shoulder was touching my shoulder but she paid me no attention, just kept looking over the side into the water. We took the hint and held off getting in. We heard on the news later that day that a woman swimming was bit by a shark two coves down from us. That sea lion stayed onboard with us until we were well back into Newport Harbor. Sometimes you just have to listen to what nature is trying to tell you.

@Scuba Lawyer & @lexvil I totally get and understand you mean this in earnest and if / when I am in a situation where I get the hint nature is trying to give me (I fear I miss more than I get), I will heed it to. In case it wasn't entirely clear, my post was a bit tongue in check about scores of reef divers (should have written tropical reef divers) looking over their shoulders for what made the sea lions disappear there...

 

[lexvil]

@Scuba Lawyer & @lexvil I totally get and understand you mean this in earnest and if / when I am in a situation where I get the hint nature is trying to give me (I fear I miss more than I get), I will heed it to. In case it wasn't entirely clear, my post was a bit tongue in check about scores of reef divers (should have written tropical reef divers) looking over their shoulders for what made the sea lions disappear there...

it's all in fun, sometimes it does seem they are trying to tell you something

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

@Scuba Lawyer & @lexvil I totally get and understand you mean this in earnest and if / when I am in a situation where I get the hint nature is trying to give me (I fear I miss more than I get), I will heed it to. In case it wasn't entirely clear, my post was a bit tongue in check about scores of reef divers (should have written tropical reef divers) looking over their shoulders for what made the sea lions disappear there...

No worries, all good. Your post just brought back a bunch of memories so I expounded from there.... I have been on many dives where the denziens of the deep all seemed to disappear at once and it is very disconcerting.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

A friend and I once did a dive right below the lighthouse at Pt. Reyes.
Long story how we wound up all the way down there from Bodega Bay.
Anyway, it was a very interesting and wild dive. When we first got down and we were getting our bearings a very nervous sea lion came up to us, looked at each one of us, then turned and looked out to the depths and in an instant sped off the other direction. It was almost as if the sea lion was there to see who we were and what we were doing but was too nervous to stick around for some other reason, nothing to do with us.
My buddy and I looked at each other and stayed down low in the rocky structure the whole dive. Never saw any sharks but never the less it was one of my top rated butt pucker dives of all time.