Sea Lions Fishing

On Monday’s trip to Westport’s docks I kept hearing an explosive splashing. I followed it to find two large sea lions diving and splashing around the end of a large ship. Despite standing at the very end of the dock for over a half hour balancing on a sloping dock, I was never able to get a better shot of either of the sea lions than this one, mostly because I could never predict where they would emerge next.

Sea Lion

Frustrated, I went back to photographing the birds I’d come to photograph.

Sea Gull Landing

However, in the process of photographing seagulls, I began to notice that large numbers of gulls were landing in particular areas, and flying up and down, as if waiting.

Sea Gulls Floating in Circle

While focused on one of those groups, I saw a tremendous splash, immediately followed by gulls taking off and landing. If you look closely you can see a fish right behind the dark gull just taking off.

Sea Lion and Sea Gulls Waiting for Scraps

Unlike me, the gulls could predict where the sea lion was going to emerge with a fish in its mouth, and were waiting for scraps of salmon that were thrown about in all the thrashing.

All I had to do was focus on the circle of gulls and eventually I would get a shot of a sea lion emerging with a fish in his mouth.

Sea Lion with Fish in Mouth

Follow a single stand devotedly enough, and you begin to unravel a little more of nature’s mysteries.

3 thoughts on “Sea Lions Fishing”

  1. Loren, I liked your comment, although I don’t completely understand the first part, but the mystery you spoke of is a symbol to me of the Creator of the universe.

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