A Stellar Visit (Sea Lion . . . that is!)

At the Steller Sea Lion Open Ocean Research Project in Port Moody, Emily Hicks stood right up close to a 200 kg sea lion, watched it stick out its tongue, roll over, and stand tall on the weight scale. After each activity, she rewarded the sea lion with a fish.



Vance Mercer, a researcher and trainer enthusiastically explained that these three enormous sea lions are the first in the world being trained in the open water. Before they were allowed to swim free, Vance and his team had to first earn their trust so they would return to the boat. “We need them to trust us so they will come back. This trust is developed over a long time.” He spends eight hours a day with the sea lions, during training sessions and then socializing and strengthening their bond. The sea lions jump out of their pen and come to him when he calls their names – Sitka, Boni and Hazy.



The sea lions needed to learn how to swim around boats and jump on and off their transport vessel, the ‘Steller Shuttle.’ They are fitted with a harness and a tracking device so the trainers can follow their movements away from the boat. The trainers run 2-3 open ocean sessions, usually in the mornings – to research and reinforce trained behaviours.



The sea lion breathes in a respiratory dome that measures its oxygen consumption, dives to a target light deep in the ocean, then returns to the surface and breathes under the dome so the scientists can measure the amount of carbon dioxide that built up in the lungs during the dive. This allows them to calculate the energy used during the dive.

Set up by the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Aquarium, the project aims to understand the energy requirements of sea lions in the wild in order to better manage the dwindling populations of Stellar sea lions on the north Pacific coast.


info from http://www.vanaqua.org/aquanew/fullnews.php?id=1728

© Colleen MacDonald 2006