Posted by John on April 18, 2002 at 09:22:07:
In Reply to: sea lion attck injures surfer posted by Chris on April 17, 2002 at 23:47:31:
During one of the strange mini-squid runs we had in 2000, we had a really aggressive 'gang' of sea lions down here off La Jolla Shores. One young male in particular was a pain... constantly charging you with mouth open, blowing bubbles, and getting RIGHT up in your face, again and again and again. Groups (seemed like gangs) of these sea lions would follow you for the entire dive, harassing you. I'm used to being followed off-and-on for 5, 10, 15 minutes, but not for 45+ minutes.
On one dive in particular, a group of 5 or 6 of us (divers) were followed for literally the entire dive -- from before descending until after surfacing -- by a group that at times was approx. two dozen sea lions. Acting fairly aggressively. The followed us back upslope at the end of the dive, dive bombing through us, blowing bubbles a foot from your nose, to where we ended up ascending in a defensive close circle, facing each other -- trying to keep them from getting inside us as we lost the relative safety of the bottom. Then they watched us sadly from the surf zone, as if to say "hey, where are you going? we're not done playing yet!"
I heard from other divers that the one really aggressive young male in that group did bite several people. But not so much as to break skin.
John