Patagonian Sea Lion, Otaria, South American Sea Lion

barry — Mon, 10 May 2010 00:22:31 +0000

Good evening once again, I hope all the moms out there are having a wonderful Mother’s Day, live it up this is your day!!!!

Here’s something a little different for you all this evening, this is Yukiko our top female sea lion trainer getting a big wet kiss from Nemo our biggest male Patagonian Sea Lion! Nemo is eight years old, he was born in Isla de Lobos, Uruguay and weighs 263 kilograms, that’s around 578 pounds folks!! Two years ago Nemo became the proud father of Mapuche who can be seen daily swimming around the sea lion lagoon looking as cute as can be. Nemo eats around 10-18 kilograms of fish a day which is around 39 pounds. These sea lions have around 36 teeth and have 6 canines, 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom, this is not an animal you want to mess with! You can see from this profile why they are called Sea Lions, they really have a lot in common with a real African lion and in time Nemo with also have a mane of hair that will grow thicker ever year. These animals can hold their breath for 5-12 minutes and dive to depths of 1000 feet! That’s really amazing! The good news is that Patagonian Sea Lions are one of the few animals out there that are doing well and on the “least concern” list meaning their numbers are strong. But, over fishing has caused a drop in their numbers over the past 10 years! I want to say Yukiko is very brave to say the least, I was scared just taking the picture, but I was assured by her and her boyfriend Johnny that all was good! They told me like any other animal even dolphins they have their good days and their bad and they know by his actions what kind of day he is having. Nemo does this fabulous show everyday that you just have to see to believe so come on down to the Curacao Sea Aquarium and see him and his family for yourself, you won’t be disappointed!

My day has been go from the start again and am half asleep right now. I left the house at 6:30am and picked up our friend and dolphin trainer Junior who wanted to help me with my new trail. We spent three hours out there and got so much done today, he was like a trail cutting machine!! At 1:00 I met my friend John who just got here from Holland and off we went to Varsenbaai, a place I had not been to for two years or since Omar! We swam on our backs for 20 minutes up the coast and then down we went in search of a sunken pick-up truck that I found years ago. To my surprise we found it but it was deeper than I had remembered, it was at 125 feet! We could only stay there for a few minutes so I shot fast and then off we went to safer depths. Once we got to 40 feet we relaxed a bit more and then ended up staying at around 35 the whole way back. The sad news is that this dive site is trashed beyond believe!! And not with human trash but with so many different kinds of alga which is killing all the coral and sponges! Apparently when Omar went thru those monster waves covered the reef with sand killing most of the corals! And we also noticed today that the water temperature was way to warm! Global Warming is alive and well and is really knocking out our corals, if this continues it will be a nightmare for the Caribbean reef systems! Varsenbaai is a place I dove three times a week just two years ago as it was so spectacular now it’s nothing but a memory, really, really sad!

Ok, I am so tired, it’s off to bed, see you tomorrow, Barry

Curacao Sea Lion Dive

barry — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:42:29 +0000

sea-lion-dive

Hi friends, how is the weekend going?? I had e-mail after e-mail wanting another sea lion shot so like a good little boy here you go! I have told our sea lion folks at work that I am interested in going again and taking more pictures so at least I am on the list, I will keep you posted.

Very little to report today, it was work, work, work, and it was hot out here today! When I got to work there was no wind, the ocean was almost dead calm and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, we all knew it was going to be miserable!

I am cooking dinner on the grill as I type and it’s about ready, see you tomorrow, Barry

12-20-2008

Coral Reef Photos » Seals + Sea Lions

Patagonian Sea Lion, Otaria, South American Sea Lion

Curacao Sea Lion Dive