5/25, 26/2024 Snorkeling with Sea Lions + Final Tide Pooling (Oliver Pheil)

 The last major event that was listed for the itinerary was something I was definitely looking forward to the most, which was going to the Isla San Jorge, also known as bird island. This was because I not only would be riding a boat for the first time, but I'd also be snorkeling with Sea Lions! It took us to get there by boat for around an hour, and did a monitoring survey of how many sea lions were either cubs/pups, or got entangled with netting, whether it'd be on the head or the tail. After this, we spent a while in the ocean with our snorkeling gear and struggled with swimming properly because of the waves. We made sure to keep our distance by at least 20 feet since the male sea lions get extremely territorial, but the female sea lions were the complete opposite. They would come in groups of around five or more and would come up to us very closely, while swimming right below us and then coming back up again, just so they could get a reaction out from us, which worked. 

The next morning (which was also this morning as well), we went to Cholla Bay to visit the mudflats for our last trip to the tide pools. The mudflats were covered with small snails and other molluscs, it was hard to walk around without stepping on them and feeling bad. Throughout those hard times, we came across multiple interesting finds. Some of these included clusters of snail eggs, a sand anemone, a few crabs, and even two octopuses that were hidden in larger shells. There was also a stringray someone had found in the waters, but it didn't have a barb to sting with because it most likely ripped off for some reason. This was, I believe, one of the coolest tide pools I had seen because of the vast amount of species that were out there.






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