Sea Lion encounters

[HaoleDiver]

So I wanted to relate an encounter with a sea lion, and see if anyone had experienced something similar, and could shed some light on it.
I was setting a float Saturday morning in about 23 feet of water at Breakwater, near edge of the kelp. I finished anchoring it down, and was just hovering near the line relaxing, and a sea lion, maybe 4 or 5 feet long, looked young, came up and started swimming around, getting closer and closer, until he darted out of sight beyond viz range. I kept watching, and he came zooming back in, mouth wide open, veering away at the last second before vanishing into kelp again.
I wasn't worried about anything, and I didn't feel threatened, but his actions definately struck me as akin to an animal acting territorial or trying to assert dominance.
On a related note, this weekend seemed to be a great one for lion spotting at the Breakwater. As I did a rescue assesment, a huge one came bounding up the beach next to me and took a perch on the rocks just at the surf line.

 

[Buccaneer]

So I wanted to relate an encounter with a sea lion, and see if anyone had experienced something similar, and could shed some light on it.
I was setting a float Saturday morning in about 23 feet of water at Breakwater, near edge of the kelp. I finished anchoring it down, and was just hovering near the line relaxing, and a sea lion, maybe 4 or 5 feet long, looked young, came up and started swimming around, getting closer and closer, until he darted out of sight beyond viz range. I kept watching, and he came zooming back in, mouth wide open, veering away at the last second before vanishing into kelp again.
I wasn't worried about anything, and I didn't feel threatened, but his actions definately struck me as akin to an animal acting territorial or trying to assert dominance.
On a related note, this weekend seemed to be a great one for lion spotting at the Breakwater. As I did a rescue assesment, a huge one came bounding up the beach next to me and took a perch on the rocks just at the surf line.

My wife was diving in Canada just 2 weeks ago and had the same experience! Her and her dive buddy were followed around by a large female Stellar Sea lion for about 5 minutes. She said it was very friendly, and would come up in front of them with 3-4 feet, but never touched them. For whatever reason, it seemed overly friendly towards her dive buddy, preferring to stay nearer to her. The one time it got close to my wife, it did the same behavior you described. It swam head on towards her, and withing 2-3 feet it opened it's mouth wide, as if to bite, and then veered away really fast. My wife didn't panick, but it did intimidate her a bit. Just last week, I was relating this story to a friend, who had 2000+ dives, and he told me of a dive where his buddy was grabbed by a male California sea lion, that pulled him to the bottom (70ft) and basically sat on him, and stared at him face to face, occasionally blowing bubbles. Then after about 10minutes it let him go, and swam off never bothering them again.

 

[jumsted65]

I wasn't worried about anything, and I didn't feel threatened, but his actions definately struck me as akin to an animal acting territorial or trying to assert dominance.

That's what I've heard. It's been my experience that the Harbor Seals are more personable though they can get annoying when overly friendly.

 

[HaoleDiver]

That's what I've heard. It's been my experience that the Harbor Seals are more personable though they can get annoying when overly friendly.

That was one of the other weird things, because I don't usually see sea lions getting that close to divers. Usually if there are any in the area, we'll get buzzed by them, and once they figure out what we are, they head out. The harbor seals (which I didnt see any of all weekend) always come up to nibble on fins and hoses.
There seemed to be a lot of sea lions in the bay this weekend, which I had never really seen before. There's always harbor seals around, but I've always seen sea lions more when down in Carmel off boats. The last time I saw a lion in the bay was a huge one that kept buzzing a friend of mine at Del Monte because the guy had a stringer of fish on his waist from hunting (I wasn't hunting with him, I was busy trying to shoo fish away from him)

 

[divinman]

While diving a rookery off the La Coronados in Mexico I had a big bull actually "bite" my head. Not hard, but it was "troubling" so I went back to the boat. After the second bite, the boat looked a long way away!!! This was in March and there were lots of pups in the water so it was most likely a territorial protection thing. The look on my dive buddies face after each "attack" was something like :11: . Didn't break the skin so all was well. Just never know...... I would dive with them again in a heartbeat.

Terry

 

[coreypenrose]

So I wanted to relate an encounter with a sea lion, and see if anyone had experienced something similar, and could shed some light on it.
I was setting a float Saturday morning in about 23 feet of water at Breakwater, near edge of the kelp. I finished anchoring it down, and was just hovering near the line relaxing, and a sea lion, maybe 4 or 5 feet long, looked young, came up and started swimming around, getting closer and closer, until he darted out of sight beyond viz range. I kept watching, and he came zooming back in, mouth wide open, veering away at the last second before vanishing into kelp again.
I wasn't worried about anything, and I didn't feel threatened, but his actions definately struck me as akin to an animal acting territorial or trying to assert dominance.
On a related note, this weekend seemed to be a great one for lion spotting at the Breakwater. As I did a rescue assesment, a huge one came bounding up the beach next to me and took a perch on the rocks just at the surf line.

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