{"id":7942,"date":"2016-01-29T10:39:51","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T02:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/?p=7942"},"modified":"2018-12-31T06:14:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T22:14:49","slug":"california-sea-lions-at-los-islotes-espiritu-santo-biosphere-reserve-baja-california-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/california-sea-lions-at-los-islotes-espiritu-santo-biosphere-reserve-baja-california-mexico.html","title":{"rendered":"California Sea Lions at Los Islotes, Espiritu Santo Biosphere Reserve, Baja California, Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California sea lions underwater, Sea of Cortez, Mexico
\nImage ID: 31205<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

In October, Tracy and I joined our friends Mike and Sherry, Skip, Shirley, Barb and Walt for 9 wonderful days diving in the Sea of Cortez<\/a> around La Paz. It was the first time Tracy and I had been diving together for any length of time in 18 years. It was so much fun to be back in the water together and the Sea of Cortez in Fall is about as relaxed, easy, warm and fun as can be. Los Islotes, a small island just north of Espiritu Santo<\/a>, is famous for its rookery of California sea lions<\/a> (Zalophus californianus<\/a><\/em>). I love diving there, more than perhaps any other place in the Sea of Cortez, and in particular like being there early or late in the day when there are no day boats around. (I could have spent the entire trip at Islotes, but fortunately for the others we did venture north to some relatively unexplored, colorful and fishy reefs that Mike has found over the years and keeps under wraps.) Islotes was as fishy as I have ever seen it, with enormous dense polarized schools of sardines along with pargo and other larger reef fish which the Sea of Cortez used to have in abundance but which are now harder to find. Los Islotes does have some legal protections against fishing, and these protections help to keep the waters around Islotes reasonably full of big fish and other marine life. But Islotes is also under threat of illegal fishing, and it is only through vigilance by those who care about a healthy Sea of Cortez that the laws that are on the books will mean something. Seawatch has made some progress on this front, but its difficult to keep eyes on Islotes 24-hours a day.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are some of my favorite images from our October dives around Islotes. I don’t keep a log any more but I would guess I spent about 30 hours underwater just photographing the sea lions, really getting to know several adult groups and having a great time watching how one bull in particular would manage his harem of females over the course of 4-5 days, not to mention the 30+ pups that would play with us at the edge of his territory. Cheers, and thanks for looking!<\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California sea lion underwater, Sea of Cortez, Mexico
\nImage ID: 31206<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/a><\/p>\n

Sea lion underwater in beautiful sunset light
\nImage ID: 31208<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a><\/p>\n

Young California sea lion pups underwater, Sea of Cortez, Mexico
\nImage ID: 31209<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/a><\/p>\n

Sea lion blowing underwater bubbles as it stands on its flippers
\nImage ID: 31210<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Blue-bronze<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue-bronze sea chub schooling, Sea of Cortez
\nImage ID: 31213<\/a>
\nSpecies: Blue-bronze Chub<\/a>, Kyphosus analogus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"California<\/a><\/p>\n

California sea lion and school of sardines underwater, Sea of Cortez, Baja California
\nImage ID: 31220<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a><\/p>\n

Young sea lion hides in an underwater crevice
\nImage ID: 31226<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sardines<\/a><\/p>\n

Sardines and Scad, Los Islotes, Sea of Cortez, Mexico
\nImage ID: 31246<\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/a><\/p>\n

Sea lion harem of females, underwater
\nImage ID: 31247<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Large<\/a><\/p>\n

Large adult male sea lion underwater
\nImage ID: 31248<\/a>
\nSpecies: California sea lion<\/a>, Zalophus californianus<\/i><\/a>
\nLocation: Sea of Cortez<\/a>, Baja California<\/a>, Mexico<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California sea lions underwater, Sea of Cortez, Mexico Image ID: 31205 Species: California sea lion, Zalophus californianus Location: Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico In October, Tracy and I joined our friends Mike and Sherry, Skip, Shirley, Barb and Walt for 9 wonderful days diving in the Sea of Cortez…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,192,110,123],"tags":[278,281,313,330],"class_list":{"0":"post-7942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mexico","8":"category-sea-lion","9":"category-sea-of-cortez","10":"category-underwater-photography","11":"tag-marine-mammals","12":"tag-mexico","13":"tag-sea-lions","14":"tag-underwater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942","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=7942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oceanlight.com\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}