Today was the day of diving with the sea lions. In the early morning, the three of us along with Scuba Iguana and some other clients, left for the ocean. Today, we left on the boat directly from the dive shop dock, headed south, and ventured for forty five minutes across the open sea. Soon, we came to Floreana island where I would be undertaking my thirteenth and fourteenth dives.
During my two dives, I was constantly surrounded by sea lions. Again and again they swerved up to us and eyed us with curious looks. Once, on the second dive, we saw about twenty sea lions chasing a huge school of maybe five thousand fish. I loved watching their huge grey eyes look at me and wondering what they were thinking. At closest, the sea lions came within one foot of us before swimming off in another direction. The visibility was very good today and we could see many more sea lions in the distance. Also, we saw some marble rays, sharks, and a very large porcupine fish.
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| Hidden Surprise! |
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| The Porcupine Fish |
In between our two dives, we needed to wait an hour or so to let the nitrogen accumulated at depth leave our body. During this time, we went snorkeling with yet more sea lions! While I was snorkeling, they came to within inches of my face. So close that, occasionally, I needed to back up so as not to touch the animal. This time, too, the sea lions chased a small group of fish. I enjoyed diving down a meter or so and pretending to charge the fish like the sea lions did. I think the sea lions thought I was one of them because they followed me half way back to the boat!
On the boat ride home, the captain let me drive the boat! I steered for about thirty minutes until I almost feel asleep at the wheel and the captain took over! I am now back at the hotel writing my blog while Mom and Susie are downstairs talking. Soon, we will go out for dinner and I am starving!
Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!
The Porcupine Fish have got pimples :-)
ReplyDeletewhat is the last picture?