Actually, I saw one on Saturday. It was floating upside down, had foam coming out of it's mouth and stunk like... well... like a dead sea lion. I could see some intestines coming out of it, but I couldn't see the wound. I would guess that it was a young GWS attack. When I was coming up to it I was planning to take some pictures, but it was just too nasty.

-Patrick

Cool. I've never smelt dead sea lion, but imagine it's pretty rank.

I've also seen a single dead seal in all my hours out there. It wasn't pretty. I didn't want to get close enough to see what killed it.

Just to add another wrinkle to this thread. While going out a week ago Monday afternoon, I noticed a knothead surface in front of a cove swimmer treading water near the new bouy. The swimmer let out a "whoa" while the knothead stared at him from a distance of only a few feet for a couple of seconds before swimming off. Could this kind of situation become more dangerous for swimmers if these animals had just been aggravated by a wrist rocket or paintball? Rick

I don't think sea lions are going to take revenge on humans...;)

I've seen far more unprovoked sea lions aggressiveness (some directed at me) than dead sea lions... Although not sure if your going to see the dead ones. I hear that sea lion coroners are quite efficient and timely.:D

They do smell pretty rank & it's something dogs love to roll in. A few years ago I was at a beach in Santa Barbara with my wife & kids and we came across a dead sea lion with a pretty big chunk missing out of it's rear quarter. It was really ripe, oozing goo and smelled terrible...instant gag if you got too close. :puke:

Anyway, a small white, fluffy pekinese type doge came prancing up the beach and immediately started rolling in the carcass. It was pretty hilarious, especially since the owner was about 25 yards down the beach and not paying attention. It took about 30 seconds for "fluffy" to get fully covered head to tail in dead seal slime. It was almost as funny watching the horrified owner sprint up the beach and pull her fluffy off the carcass. Wish I'd got it on video!:D