SEA LION Cruise (Zalophus Californianus)
The California Sea Lion is the only pinniped (meaning wing-footed) we see regularly out of Newport Beach. In fact, we see Sea Lions so regularly that we don’t even put them on our Whale Count! Many of our resident Sea Lions will spend most of their day on Newport Bell Buoy, less than a mile outside the mouth of Newport Harbor, making for an excellent, up-close experience with them on every whale watching trip!
Often, if you see a Sea Lion in open water, it will be laying on its back with its flippers in the air. Though it looks like playing dead, this is actually called thermoclining. Sea Lions do this to regulate the temperature of their bodies while they are swimming in cold water.
Male Sea Lions can grow to be up to 8 feet long and weigh up to 800 pounds, while their female counterparts can reach 6.5 feet and 400 pounds. They can eat a multitude of different species of fish, crustaceans, and even small sharks, but a Sea Lion’s favorite food is octopus.