Posted by Brad on January 27, 2005 at 18:17:00:
Last August i took the good skiff out to the Cortes Bank, camped out for a couple of nights, then zipped over to Nicolas for the third night before heading home.. While swimming near the wreck on the Cortes, this very curious seal followed me around for a while. We exchanged a few friendly summersaults and soon became best of friends...
After a while she began to approach very close and i just continued my diving not wanting to encourage her. She continued to followed me up and down the water column, never getting out of view. I guess she sensed that i wasn't paying enough attention to her so she came right up and grabbed my arm! She wasn't agressive, she seemed to be yearning for something as they often appear to be...
On that trip, I got some video of a sea turtle and a marlin jumping out of the water 7 times..
I spent the last two weekends at Nicolas and the water out by the green buoy had 60ft vis. The elephants are up on the beaches and the sea lion pups are in the water. The mothers are pregnant so the pups are in the process of being weaned.. When they gather in groups to play, they are so sweet to eachother. Sea lion pups are one of the most demonstratively affectionate creatures in the entire animal kingdom! I swung into SBI on the way home on both Sundays and there wasn't another boat at the island @11am... The vis at the archway was 60ft.
The recent rains have not turned over the water, but there is a lot of debris to contend with out there...
Brad
(loves the sea)