For this week’s inspiration Monday, I’m looking back to a research trip to the Galapagos one year ago. 

Sea Lions are amazing creatures…  big puppies when they’re young, sort of a lion-rhino combo when they’re mature. I got charged by a big bull one year when I was swimming a reef- the thing came tearing in with its maw wide open. Suffice it to say that I swam my fastest 50 meters ever getting out of that surf. 

Unfortunately, our fishing hooks have a way of getting into the mouths of these guys. Just another sign of the universality of humanity’s fingerprints in the natural environment.

This is some video I shot of a National Park team on San Cristobal (Galapagos, Ecaudor) extracting a hook and releasing a ‘Lobo’.

I’ve got to wonder if sea lions have long memories or hold a grudge… or if they realize that the hook is gone. That’s a rather inscrutable look being cast back over the shoulder there.

Anyhow, it made for some fun sketching.