http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/00427/wdfw00427.pdf

First, I went to the zoo visiting Large Seals Inc. I osmosed.

Then Cape Flattery and Hearst's beach haulout following a huge storm last fall.

A harbor seal and I are on speaking terms on Haro Strait. The harbor takes time out to come by, alert to approaching Orca, waves from Bailer's Rocks.

For several weeks, a Stellar from Tatoosh was off Lime Kiln. He stayed 120' plus from me, breathing deep. I breathed with him. He breathed with me. Get it ?

Two stories.

Went above Tatoosh on the road above the parking area for sea lion observation. After several hours, I tried telepathic contact with the head male, using binoculars.

Head male turned toward me ! looked around for me, began bellowing. The assembled females awoke. Apparently, the head male had broken a rule - why bellow ?

The females mobbed him, a melee ! Two females were grabbed by the ruff, heaved over the side - outgoing tide - 6-8' down.

At the over the side,a wave of discontent arose, the male was overwhelmed.

He flattened himself on the rock covering head with flippers. Very flexible, spine up, blubbber down flounderlike.

At Hearst's, primed by Tatoosh, I circled the lot twice, getting something of a welcome from the homonids. then took time developing local rapport before walking to the boardwalk's head.

The storm was a rough one. Seals were basking. The usual seal beach photos.

I was mentally looking for a seal to speak with.

Ahead, midst a circle of larger sleeping seals rose a huge flipper held aloft then waving at me !

On a beach OF 2-300 snored off seals.

There you go.

NOT SO FAST !

an elaboration for post 4540.

consider the head male's position: sensitivities, awareness, need to excercise power, irrritability and cooperation. I cannot recall 'cooperation' among attributes viewed under 'sea lion harem.'

He was/is so tuned in with his achieved position, he immediately heard my contact, looked around for a foe, found none, sounded the alarm or sought to raise a foe.

Finding he was the problem, he fell back.

When I was about thirteen years old I tried to get close to a large bull in my 7 ft duckboat in open water on Richardson's Bay. He kept swimming away but whenever I saw him surface I would pursue. After a while the sea lion tired of this little game and he surfaced near me roaring loudly while giving a look that needed no interpretation. I stopped intentionally harassing sea lions at that moment. My little boat felt extra small and it was a long way back to shore. In the 1970's I was chased by a sea lion when I motored close to rocky Pt. Blunt on Angel Island one afternoon in the early 1970's. I was going along about 10-12 kts in a small aluminum boat when the sea lion appeared alongside barking and giving me the stink eye while jumping out of the water on a parallel course but angling closer with each leap. I was frightened and got out of there quick. When I trolled for salmon commercially in the mid-70's a lot of commercial fishermen shot at sea lions. Sea lions would follow trollers stealing what ever they caught. Sea lions that have been injured by fishermen, or that have seen friends, lovers, or relatives injured or killed by fishermen might not appreciate being approached by humans. They can also be very territorial, especially when mating. I was a sea urchin harvester from the late 70's until the early 90's and I never heard of sea lions causing a problem for divers in California however some divers working out of Port Orford Oregon reported being bitten on the head by male sea lions. Evidently this is some form of sea lion domination display. The divers reported that the sea lions put their mouth over the top of the divers head biting down hard enough to cause pain while roaring and blowing stinky hot breath. Understandably, this scared the s**t out of the divers who experience this. This happened on a particular reef when the sea lions were breeding. Some divers were bit harder than others but none (that I heard of) suffered serious injury. A problems I experienced at Fort Bragg one year in the 1980's was when several large sea lions include big bulls decided to make a home for themselves on our dock and they refused to let us pass to get to our boat. We tried spraying them with water from a hose but they seemed to enjoy that. A hand held air-horn seemed to work just fine. They respect a creature that can bark louder than they can. PS Although it was a common practice at the time, I never shot at sea lions. I stopped fishing in the mid-90's. The only thing I shoot is a camera.

I liked them better when they confined themselves to the sea. When they became river lions, I lost my toleration for them. The Stellers certainly do have a way of letting you know that your kayak and paddle don't intimidate them one little bit.

looks like an older forum, but hopefully magooch has become a little more enlightened. Even if we refer to the biblical term of dominion, we should consider this in an entirely new context of an overpopulated, overpolluted, overstressed planet, and consider the need for responsibility and stewardship rather than master and slave. We need to see ourselves as part of the greater global system and how can we promote more natural environment. We run into conflict when we extend into their areas not the other way around. We have crowded the rest of the natural world so much we are creating more conflict every day. I would hope this would be clear to most kayakers, maybe harder to understand for a jetskier.

For the dog owner he led his dog into harms way. If you are so concerned would you launch with a sea lion swimming in the area? would you show more concern than the dog owner did for his pet.

finally, I have an old sea lion (perception) and it has never hurt me ....... or my dog. If even took me an island off the coast Maine this summer!

The animal communications research I'm involved with sez animals are telepathic. You too even if you're too busy to notice the effect. You read the Tatoosh story ? An honest and accurate account.

Given the fact sea lion is not there to eat you, aggression is territorial defense, maybe your SL is paranoid ?

Reorient your mind into a receptive mode, stop paddling, place paddle across cockpit, breath out audibly, and smile at the SL. Don't show your teeth, smile.

The SL will swim to your hull, grasp the bow, drag you under and eat you.

Well dougie, I'm just enlightened enough to leave sea lions alone and hope that they leave me alone. On the other hand, as unenlightened as you might think it is, I don't necessarily believe that any animal has any more right to any inch of ground, or water on this planet than what it can win by whatever means. If it comes down to me, or the sea lions being able to claim my favorite paddling areas, the sea lions are in for a fight.