Two baby sea lions at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

I was slowly approaching to film them when I realized that one of them was chewing on a blue plastic cap from a water bottle. Not on my watch was a baby sea lion going to choke on discarded plastic. I made a sudden movement toward the sea lions, and the baby was startled and dropped the bottle cap. I reached my leg forward and dragged the bottle cap toward me with my foot so that it was out of his reach. He quickly substituted a pebble for the bottle cap and played hockey with it, flipping it into his mouth, biting on it and spitting it out.

When I told Fabo about the incident he said that the little guy was around three months old and was most probably teething. At that age they will bite on anything to soothe their emerging teeth, and plastic is an increasing problem.

With more tourists, there is more litter. The guides always report litter when they see it, and they always fill their pockets with other people's trash. It is a shame that such a fragile ecosystem is disrespected by the very guests who come to enjoy it.

Author

Craig and Steph

Created on

Tuesday 22 January 2019

Posted on

Saturday 9 February 2019

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