SAN DIEGO, U.S. — The bluff at La Jolla Cove in San Diego is covered with pelicans and cormorants; below, some two dozen sea lions lounge on a rocky ledge or bark and frolic in the shallows, some leaping clear out of the water. On the shore, a volunteer from the local Sierra Club’s Seal Society, an organization that educates and advocates for pinniped protection, is monitoring an emaciated 13.5-kilogram (30-pound) pup, just a few months old, that has spent the last several days hauling up on the beach, with no sign of an adult nearby. Now, Hubbs Sea World has a response team on the way to rescue it. Hubbs is part of a marine mammal stranding network that covers California’s entire 1,770-kilometer (1,100-mile) coastline. Snorkeling in the cove amid healthy green surf grass, with bright orange Garibaldi damselfish (Hypsypops rubicundus) swimming by (think goldfish on steroids), my cameraman friend Charlie Landon and I are suddenly surrounded by swooping, barrel-rolling sea lions. They move like flexible torpedoes, twisting through the water column, some streaming bubbles from their snouts. Watching a rockfish near the bottom of the cove, I sense movement and turn to see a large sea lion, maybe 110 kg (250 lbs), eyeing me from less than arm’s length away before gliding on. A curious juvenile bites down on Charlie’s GoPro camera before approaching me, close enough that I put my hands on my chest lest it “mouth feel” my fingers. Then it heads back into the swirling…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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