The island of Los Islotes located in the Sea Cortez hosts many playful and inquisitive California Sea Lions. The Sea Lion colony of Los Islotes is about 45-60 minutes from downtown La Paz, Mexico. The island is only accessible by speed boat. The Sea Lions have become accustomed to human interaction with very few ill effects which produces great interactions for divers and snorkelers.
Most dive operations in the region will offer 2-3 dives at the Sea Lion colony. The operators generally will provide lunch, soft drinks, marine park pass and dive guides all included in one fee. Dive operators also provide the option of scuba diving or snorkel with the Sea Lions. I dove with the team from The Cortez Club.
Currently, there are about 33 extant species of pinnipeds. Sea Lions are a species of pinnipeds characterized by their external ear flaps, long fore flippers, the ability to walk on all fours, thick hairs, and big chest and belly.
I spent a week diving with the Sea Lions and each day I met a very mischievous juvenile Sea Lion. In the underwater videos and photographs, you will see how the Sea Lions like to playfully inspect and bite nearly everything.
I shot the images above with a Panasonic GH5 and Gopro Hero 8 Black. For more details about my underwater camera set-up, please visit this page.
We were just in La Paz and dived the same spot with the Dive In La Paz shop! What days were you there?
I arrived in La Paz during the last week of November and spent 6 days diving with the Sea Lions. We planned to dive 8 plus snorkel with the whale sharks but we had a patch of bad weather and the shop decided to not run the boats. I’m just getting to edit all of my images now. It keeps the trip going in my mind 😉
This seems like such an amazing experience!
It’s a lot of fun! I highly recommend trying a few dives or snorkeling with them.
A week! You’re so lucky! I only had a few hours and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Great video!
Yeah, I figured I would dedicate a week to the sea lions. Just in case there were any issue with the weather which happened. We were blown out from 2 out of the 7 days of going to the colony. Also, we couldn’t look for whale sharks because the port was closed due to weather on another day.
Really interesting post.