The impressive Steller sea lion deserves respect:
• The biggest sea lion in the world.
• The males can weigh almost as much as a car and can reach over 3 metres long.
• They hunt in groups, mainly at night.
• Most of their prey is eaten whole.
• The Steller Sea Lion’s predators include killer whales, and sharks!
• They are clever, inquisitive and mischievous with a reputation for deliberately scaring divers.
Diving with a bunch of them was always going to be risky. Steve and the team got more than they bargained for in this terrifying encounter.
Director James had this to say about the dive:
“Nothing prepared me for the experience of diving with Steller Sea lions. The plan once in the water was that we would all stick together very closely in a line, safety in numbers protecting us from being intimidated. The problem was…it didn’t work.
We approached the colony underwater in very low visibility. Gradually on the edge of my vision I was aware of a dark wall of faces in front of me. They moved towards us like a huge storm cloud and I could make out teeth and eyes.
We were all transfixed and I was aware of Steve and cameraman Simon positioning themselves to film. Suddenly out of the blue a massive bull Sea Lion swooped past Steve like a gigantic bat. It absolutely dwarfed him and was as big as any shark I’ve seen. The surprise was the speed it moved; one minute is was there and the next it had vanished. It’s the first time before or since that I’ve heard Steve swear underwater! As a team there are often moments to talk or interact underwater perhaps exchange glances, but from that moment all we could think about was concentrating on where the sea lions were. Our eyes were like saucers!
As filming went on it became more and more intimidating; one sea lion would distract you, blowing bubbles in your face, while another grabbed your fins from behind and gave them a good yank. At one point a young male hovered above Steve in his blind spot and fastened a mouth the size of a lion’s on to the top of his head.
I had a nightmare premonition of it biting through his skull, but it seemed to have had enough sport and shot off. It was just like being bullied by a gang of underwater thugs, they really seemed to enjoy it.
As a filming team it’s normal to stay underwater as long as our cylinders will safely allow. Not this time, as soon as we’d finished filming the sea lions we got the heck out of there!”
