A close encounter with sea lions in the water is one of the greatest wildlife experiences on earth. “Swimming with sea lions, are you kidding?, you may think. Indeed, jumping in the water in front of a sea lion colony with hundreds of them being around may seem at first glance kind of a risky thing to do. But in fact it is the biggest fun imaginable.

Within seconds you will be surrounded by tens of sea lion heads popping out of the water, curiously looking at you with their incredibly beautiful big black eyes. You may not notice them at first, while trying to swim closer to the colony in order to meet them. But don’t worry! Just have a look over your shoulder and you will see: the whole bunch is already behind your back and making fun of you.

And that’s what it is all about – for both: humans and sea lions – having a good time. As curious as we are looking at them – they do look at us too. The only thing you have to do: enjoy observing them when popping out of the water in front of and around you, jumping and hurling around or looking at you from below and rocketing past you. Swimming with sea lions is fun for everybody.

You don’t need to be a great swimmer – your wet suit will maintain you warm and floating and you don’t need to actually swim great distances. The sea lions will approach you, they will maintain their distance and they will leave, once they checked you out – giving way to a dozen or so other sea lions that want to take a look.

You came here for a dive – then fun gets even bigger. Don’t expect great visibilities, when diving in front of a sea lion colony. The water is full of floating remains from their last dinner. But you wont need to see very far, as the sea lions will approach you even closer. While being at the surface, they mostly will maintain a save distance of more than an arms length, but being under water they may become a little more bold: Being marine animals with no hand to actually touch you, sea lions try to explore you using their mouth. They won’t bite you, but you will find them approaching from behind and very softly feeling you fins with their teeth or even trying on your arm or leg what a wet suit feels.

“Uuuups, he caught me!” Sea lions will mostly approach you from behind. When turning around, surprising them while suckling at your fins, they will behave like children caught when doing something forbidden. They’ll perform a funny turn or any other strange movement (“I never thought they where able to do THIS!”); they may stand on their head or rocket away – just for a second of course.

“You want to speed it up?” No problem! Just start swimming like a sea lion would, doing turns backwards and forwards; spin around and change your direction abruptly to whatever side. Within parts of seconds you will have them rocketing around you, making a jump at the surface and coming down to you again while throwing a chain of bubbles. Now it’s all about speed and they are rushing past you from every possible angle.

“But isn’t there any danger involved?” Sea lions are fierce predators – but they feed on fish not humans. There are no reports in Peru of any fun–diver being attacked or even slightly scratched by a sea lion. The worst that may happen to you is an excited young sea lion getting too bold and mistakenly knocking off your mask.

So, generally spoken, there is no danger involved provided you are not provoking it yourself. Sea lions are untamed wildlife, so of course they may take it with little tolerance if you would try to grab them, or even punch them.“But isn’t there any danger involved?” Sea lions are fierce predators – but they feed on fish not humans. There are no reports in Peru of any fun–diver being attacked or even slightly scratched by a sea lion. The worst that may happen to you is an excited young sea lion getting too bold and mistakenly knocking off your mask. So, generally spoken, there is no danger involved provided you are not provoking it yourself. Sea lions are untamed wildlife, so of course they may take it with little tolerance if you would try to grab them, or even punch them.

The most important rule is, not to feed them and not to carry around dead fish – the few known reports of humans getting bitten, all involved fishermen, diving near sea lion colonies for spear fishing and carrying dead fish with them, thus of course provoking a sea lion to try to steal the fish. The diver trying to defend its prey obviously runs danger to be bitten.

“But aren’t there sharks feeding on sea lion pubs – especially near the colonies?” There are no reports of any shark feeding on sea lion pubs in front of a colony in Peru.

“Curious?” – Then you should come and give it a try. See our slide show and our programs, and prepare for the biggest fun in live.

• Click here to see swimming with Sea lions video.
• Click here to see Sea lions in Bayovar.
  

See also information on the natural history and the conservation status of sea lions in Peru.