{"id":1435,"date":"2009-02-25T16:35:14","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T00:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/?p=1435"},"modified":"2009-02-25T16:35:14","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T00:35:14","slug":"galapagos-sea-lion-cousins-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/galapagos-sea-lion-cousins-rock.html","title":{"rendered":"Galapagos Sea Lion, Cousins Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last time I dove <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?x=cousins_rock__galapagos_islands__ecuador__world__location\">Cousins Rock<\/a>, one of the finer dive sites in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/galapagos_islands_photo.html\">Galapagos Islands<\/a>, I was set up to photograph sea horses.  I rarely shoot macro, but on this trip I was burned out from two weeks of diving and swimming long distances (the currents are strong in the Galapagos Islands), and I planned to settle down on one of the ledges at Cousins and just shoot the sea horses.  After a few minutes on the ledge, I felt a nudge on my shoulder.  A young <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/galapagos_sea_lion_photo.html\">Galapagos sea lion<\/a> (<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?sp=Zalophus_californianus_wollebacki\">Zalophus californianus wollebacki<\/a><\/em>) is laying down beside me, watching what I am doing.  I had no idea it was there.  It hangs out for a few minutes, playing with the smooth stones that are found on the ledges (probably left there by other sea lions), and finally leaves to swim up to the surface for a breath of air.  A few minutes later there it is again, right beside me.  It stayed with me like this for the entire hour-long dive.  What a pleasant and mellow companion, willing to just hang out with me and relax!  I eventually obliged it by taking its portrait, converted here to black and white.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=16395\" title=\"Galapagos sea lion.\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/stock-photo\/galapagos-sea-lion-underwater-zalophus-photograph-16395-629111.jpg\" alt=\"Galapagos sea lion, Zalophus californianus wollebacki, Zalophus californianus wollebaeki, Cousins\" title=\"Galapagos sea lion, Zalophus californianus wollebacki, Zalophus californianus wollebaeki, Cousins\" class=\"aligncenter\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Galapagos sea lion.<br \/>Image ID: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/spotlight.php?img=16395\">16395<\/a><br \/>Species: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/galapagos_sea_lion_photo.html\" title=\"Galapagos sea lion photos\">Galapagos sea lion<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?sp=Zalophus_californianus_wollebacki\" title=\"Zalophus californianus wollebacki photos\"><i>Zalophus californianus wollebacki<\/i><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?sp=Zalophus_californianus_wollebaeki\" title=\"Zalophus californianus wollebaeki photos\"><i>Zalophus californianus wollebaeki<\/i><\/a><br \/>Location: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?location=cousins&amp;state=galapagos_islands&amp;country=ecuador\">Cousins<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?state=galapagos_islands&amp;country=ecuador\">Galapagos Islands<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?country=ecuador\">Ecuador<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/lightbox.php?sp=Zalophus_californianus_wollebacki\">Galapagos sea lion photos<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/galapagos_islands_photo.html\">photos from the Galapagos Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last time I dove Cousins Rock, one of the finer dive sites in the Galapagos Islands, I was set up to photograph sea horses. I rarely shoot macro, but on this trip I was burned out from two weeks of diving and swimming long distances (the currents are strong&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-galapagos-diaries"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}