Has anyone had scary experiences with sea lions? I likewise have had sea lions closer than I like. On at least three occasions they have surfaced beside me close enough that could have touched them with my paddle. I have never been physically harmed by one but weighting up to a ton they are threating to say the least. Each time I have yelled at them and they have left. On other occasions I have paddled past large colonies where they came out to investigate me but left me alone. Sealion populations have been declining rapidly in Alaska so the creatures are highly stressed for reasons no one quite understands. My conclusion is that though I have never been attacked by one, I treat them as dangerous and if attacked I would sacrifice a paddle to defend myself. Also I carry a tekna knife on my PFD for such emergencies. Hopefully I will never be in such a situation. Bob Alaska *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Aug 22 2002 - 23:46:45 PDT
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