Seals and Sea Lions
The usual technique when interacting with any wild creature is to stay still so as not to spook them. For years, I tried this technique with seals during many brief underwater encounters, and it sort of worked. They would swim past at the limit of visibility and that would be it. I would try keeping still and holding my breath, but it would be very rare that a seal would come any closer. I thought I was scaring them away, and maybe there was some element of that, but nowadays I think it was more boredom that limited my encounters. By staying still I was not worth playing with.
Once a seal shows some interest in you, you have to do something both interesting and non-threatening to hold the seal’s attention. Spin, roll and turn somersaults, but don’t chase the seal. Let the seal come to you. Chasing a seal will not necessarily scare it away, but there is no way a diver could even win at a game of chase. Now I know why I practised all those forward and backward rolls when learning to dive many years ago. They had to come in useful for something.
Wherever you dive with seals, once they get used to you, there is a good chance they will take a fancy to your fins.
In the Farne Islands, a young seal started by sneaking up behind me and nuzzling and nibbling my fins, slowly gaining confidence as I turned and twisted away, providing my new friend with a game of chase the fin. After a while, and feeling particularly amorous, the seal moved on to cuddling them with his front flippers. By itself, this was entertaining, but looking at the size of those sharp canine teeth, it was a bit worrying when he moved on to showing his affection for the legs of my dry suit.
The most charming thing about seals and sea lions is that they behave a bit like aquatic puppies. In the Galapagos, a gang of young sea lions had a great time playing chase around the divers.
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