Starting a new thread to avoid hijacking Single-handed safety considerations, I posted this a part of a commentary on why west-coasters worry about swim steps.
And then Brian Godfrey posted this…
… claiming that Oregon’s Stellar Sea Lions were bigger.
In the spirit of Southern California local pride, here’s two more pictures of sea lions on my dock:
You want big honkin’ sea lions, we got big honkin’ sea lions.
– Bob
Well at least I had the sense to take my photo from 60’ away and three stories up. They are lions, after all.
Here in CA we have a neighborhood Mountain Lion, though he’s only been seen on security cameras. Hunts in our neighbor’s yard occasionally, or so he says. I know our deer population has dwindled since the birthing season last spring. I like the deer - they hide out in our natural arroyo and come out at night to eat the neighbor’s roses and other irrigated landscaping. But I hope the lion doesn’t run out of them because we’re probably next on his menu, being large and fat and slow. I certainly did feel safer in Sea Lion territory because I don’t bear any resemblance to a salmon.
(I looked it up: Actually, there are California Sea Lions in Oregon, but also the Steller’s Sea Lions, which are around twice the size. But I don’t know which one is in my photo. I just know he was huge. And my family used to raise steers, so I have a fairly good idea what 1500 pounds looks likes: a little bigger than a butchering size steer.)
Here on idyllic Vancouver Island …. Fishermans Wharf in Cowichan Bay (until recently Sandpiper’s home) hosts a couple of hundred stellar and California sea lions for about six weeks every fall. It draws LOTS OF TOURISTS.
…and yes we have one of the highest concentrations of cougars (aka mountain lions) in North America too.
Lucky us!
Same here. Plenty of them stop to take pictures. Not one has ever offered to help clean up my boat, though. Go figure.
I prefer seals, which we also have. (The picture below wasn’t taken locally, but it was fun to have gotten up close and personal with this guy.)
– Bob
This what Paul Millers was talking about. You don’t want these on your swim platform or deck for that matter.
Mark
Here in New England when the Bears lose there fear of humans and start causing damage to life limb or property we are allowed eliminate them. Is the same true of these Sea Lions out west?
As marine mammals they are protected here (Canada).
To Mark’s point….. a couple of years ago several managed to board and sink a sailboat about the size of the one in his post at the dock at Fisherman’s Wharf in Cowichan Bay.
Sea lions are also a protected marine species in the United States.
In case of interest, here are the regs on what you’re allowed to do to deter them: Copy of NOAA Regs re sea lions.
Oddly enough, one of the listed allowed methods is to shoot them with Nerf guns.
Because of the risk of becoming an internet villain with all the tourists taking pictures, folks down here refrain from most of the allowed methods. We mostly spray them with our dockside waterhoses. Turns out, creatures that live in the water don’t seem to like taking showers.
My dock neighbor surrounded his boat with orange traffic cones, as well as a couple on his swim platform. I copied him and put a few at the end of my slip. I don’t know why that works, but for some reason, the sea lions seem to like every other section of the dock but stay away from us.
I regard sea lions as living proof that nature smells best on television. In person, not so much.
Discourse is really good at finding related stuff. It just reminded me that I did virtually the same rant on this topic four years ago: Why California Nonsuches don't have swim steps...
I prefaced a story I was about to tell my daughter-in-law by saying that I might be about to repeat myself. Her response was, “Probably.”
– Bob
I didn’t read the link to NOAA regs on sea lions because I will most probably never encounter one.
I am reminded of a passage in Joshua Slocoms’ book ‘Sailing Alone Around The World’ when he was concerned about warding off a different kind of mammal.
“At this point in
my dilemma Captain Pedro Samblich, a good Austrian of large
experience, coming along, gave me a bag of carpet-tacks, worth more
than all the fighting men and dogs of Tierra del Fuego. I protested
that I had no use for carpet-tacks on board. Samblich smiled at my
want of experience, and maintained stoutly that I would have use for
them. “You must use them with discretion,” he said; “that is to say,
don’t step on them yourself.” With this remote hint about the use of
the tacks I got on all right, and saw the way to maintain clear decks
at night without the care of watching.”
Excerpt From
Sailing Alone Around the World
Joshua Slocum
Ah, yes. THOSE pesky mammals.
I’ve avoided the necessity of spending my own money on carpet tacks by being far and away one of the cheapest boats in my marina.
Say what you will against the filthy rich but, as a defense against thieves, those fancy boats around me make great decoys.
– Bob
Well that certainly is interesting. Thanks. Seems to me that the most memorable to them would be either a cattle prod (maybe taped to the end of a boat hook) or pepper spray. Walk up while they are sleeping, yell HEY! and immediately zap them and they’ll be 100 yards away before they even wake up. And they’ll never want to return. This would be even more effective when they were still wet. I love Sea Lions and we enjoy seeing them when we sail, but that doesn’t mean that they belong on my boat. There are dozens of buoys out there for them to use…
Oh, and speaking of marine mammals, we finally saw our first whales from this boat while sailing last week. One gray whale from a bit of a distance and one Humpback close up. The Humpback was easy to find because a Navy destroyer called a whale watch boat on the VHF and asked what the heck he was doing. (In more officious terms, of course.) The boat said they had seen a spout and were investigating it. It was easy to find them both on the AIS and drift over that way.
And about the mountain lions. We watched an excellent Nature documentary on them yesterday. At one point they showed a mother calling to her kittens and we both looked at each other with large eyes and our hair standing on end. We’d just heard that same call a couple of days earlier while taking the dog out for her last walk at night. It sounded like somewhere in our front yard - about 50’ from where we were when we heard it.
It’s not repeating if you don’t remember having said it that previous 100 times. At least that is my theory.
Eagle Harbour YC in West Vancouver, BC Boxing Day evening. Becoming an annual occurrence!
Kent Brownlow
NS33 Whisker
Gabriola Island, BC
I have read that the cougars on Vancouver Island are more likely to attack people than any other cougar population in North America. As a child I saw a number of dead ones around Tofino, including one that had tried to climb onto the stern on a local fishing boat. My fear was visceral. One morning we were cautioned not to take the short cut to school as a parent had seen one standing on the path. I still don’t trust them.
Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh no!
Happy New Year.
Brian
Makes sense to me. Cougars need a lot of land and when populations become too crowded they spread out. But an island - even a huge one - limits this. Cougars will eat other food (including humans) if they have to, but they are deer specialists. I bet there are more human attacks after hunting season than before it! It’s simple biology: increase the population and decrease the food supply and watch what happens.
My wife and I still walk the dog at night, but we pay more attention when she alerts us to danger. It’s probably just coyotes, not the local cougar, but it certainly could be. And I’m always relieved to see fresh deer prints in the mornings. It means we remain lower on the menu. 
I also recall seeing prints on the beach where a cougar had chased a deer. After some tight turns the tracks headed into the ocean. We never did see where any tracks came out of the ocean so the outcome was unknown. I am glad we still have room for wild animals, but we do have to remember that we are often in their territory and govern ourselves accordingly.
