Last November I visited Mexico, principally to photograph the sea lion colony which lives on the small outcrop of rock known as Los Islotes, an hour’s boat ride from Baja California Sur's capital of La Paz. Sea lions are friendly, inquisitive animals that often interact with divers. They also make great photographic subjects, offering opportunities ranging from super cute pups, mock fighting of juveniles and territorial behaviour of the bulls.

This image falls into the super cute group & was taken in a small cave the pups use as a playground, presumably keeping out of the way of the more boisterous juveniles. It was quite a small cave, probably only 3m x 2m inside - I found I could surface & just get my head above water before hitting the roof. There must have been around 20 pups playing inside & they were very inquisitive of their new visitor. They pulled my fins, mask, air hose - anything they could get hold of. It was quite claustrophobic with only enough room for one person inside, plus it was obviously dark. Some divers found it a bit too much, particularly when the sea lions started play-biting (think a small puppy’s bite), but I was ok & visited at least 5 or 6 times over the week. I’ve got several favourite images & this is one of them - in addition to the cute look on his face I also love the colour tones.

I’ll post more images over the next few days, plus I’m going to start pulling the video together. I’ve got a lot of footage which will mean it’ll not be a quick job, but I’m genuinely looking forward to looking through it.