Australian sealions are to my mind the most beautiful and lovable of all the seal species on the planet. They are truly friendly, intelligent and harmless creatures. Yet their numbers continue to decline. Apart from a very few dedicated scientists, nothing much is really being done to address the complex impacts we humans have on their aquatic habitat. With less than 7,000 for the whole of Australia they are vanishing fast. I have been working in the field with wild Australian sealions for 40 years now in an effort to raise awareness of this looming disaster. I simply cannot understand why so few people appear to care.

These three wild, young sealions have gathered around on a convenient rock to inspect the strange creature that I am. They show me nothing but happiness, innocence and playful intent and it thrills me to share some time and space with them.