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Saturday we took a walk along the ocean. i nearly stepped on a seal. They really blend in well.
Initially he hissed like a cat, and I backed away But I think I merely woke him up-- we backed away slowly, then walked on for a hour or so, exploring tidepools and watching carefully how we tread.
We saw him again on the way back. He was the only one on the beach-- his pals were all out on a rock. I wondered if he was ill, but he seemed fine, just curious and drowsy.
I have never seen a seal so close before. I saw some sea lions when I was kayaking and they were (I'm convinced) considering capsizing me. They are so big, and we are so small in comparison. It's less scary to run into one on the beach, where outrunning it is pretty likely. But it showed no hostility or concern, just mild curiosity.
I like to think it was waving bye-bye as we left. Yet another reason to join us at Asilomar-- seals, sea lions, sea otters and lots of other wildlife are part of the California Beach lifestyle (yeah, everyone talks about the surfers and beach bunnies, but that's farther south. ).
They may have been boasting.
Based on a couple of afternoons snorkelling with them in Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne, Australia) sea lions like swimming with other biggish things. In particular, they seem to like swimming alongside them for a little while and then showing how much better they are at swimming, diving, and generally existing in the water. I get the impression they're natural-born show-offs.
You want to be carefull around seals, especially big Bull seals, they're suprisingly fast and could make a real mess of you!