Seals, Sea Lions and Walruses

“I was inspired to write this book after swim­ming with a sea lion dur­ing a vis­it to the Gala­pa­gos Islands. Here’s an excerpt from my trav­el journal:

“Sud­den­ly, a strange noise star­tled me. As I turned toward the sound, my heart began to race. A large, chocolate–colored crea­ture dart­ed toward me at top speed. An instant before impact, the ani­mal altered its course slight­ly, glid­ing just inch­es below my body. I was shocked, but the sea lion was thrilled. It was play­ing one of its favorite games — chicken.

“My new play­mate copied my every move. When I dove, it dove too. And when I turned, the sea lion fol­lowed me. Soon, I was out of breath, but the sea lion kept on going. It used its pow­er­ful front flip­pers like oars and steered with its small­er back flip­pers. As the grace­ful ani­mal flowed effort­less­ly through the water, it spun in cir­cles and twist­ed its agile body this way and that. When play­time was over, the sea lion swam to shore and flopped down on the beach.”