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Dogs of the Sea

By Bruce R.

Years ago, I was on a boat dive at the Channel Islands. The sea was rough, so the water was murky, like Northern California's. As we were descending, a seal flew by. Was that a seal? I only saw a dark shape disappear into the haze.

As we moved around the rocks at the bottom, the seal kept flitting around us. He got close enough so I could see his ears. Ah, a Seal Lion. Did we look like crippled seals, slowly moving around? I would move slowly, trying to conserve air. My dive buddy was nice and never complained that it was always me who hit the low-air mark that ended every dive.

When the visibility is low, it is best to move in closer to the rocks. Turning on my dive light to see the colors, I was looking for colorful Nutibrnank slugs. The seal had been moving around us, but I had not seen him for a bit. I looked around. Then I remembered a line from the Star Trek "The Wrath of Khan" movie, "He is thinking two-dimensionally." I looked up. The seal was one foot above me, looking at what I was looking at, his head moving around like he was wondering, "What have you got there?" Then he noticed I was looking at him. He darted off, out of sight in a second, not to be seen again.

I related this when back on the dive boat. One of the spear-fishing divers said the seal was probably hoping for a treat since seals often try to take their catch. Oh, still, it looked like he was having fun flitting around us. Then I thought of dogs racing around. They also wouldn't turn down a treat.

FYI, You can find many images of the 1/2-inch to 2-inch Nutibrnanks here: Nutibrnank Images

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