Sara Maxwell at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA--I've just arrived back from a week as part of the first field crew on San Nicolas Island where we were attempting to recapture sea lions satellite tagged back in November. So how do you catch a sea lion?  Not unlike how you tag an elephant seal - very carefully!  

Since we were looking for individual animals amongst thousands of sea lions, this is no easy job.  Thankfully, all 10 of the sea lions have radio transmitters, making it easier for us to locate them.  

On our first day, it started off as a great day to be a sea lion: 

But as the day progressed, it got a bit foggy.  This is Melinda Fowler using the radio antenna to try and locate one of our elusive sea lions:

Once we have a general idea of where the sea lion is, we need to get a closer look so we can figure out a strategy to catch her.  This requires crawling on your hands, knees and belly every so slowly over ground like this....

To look through your binos like this....

At the sea lions like this....

And at the end you look something like this....

...Covered in poo but having had the time of your life!

Next its time to strategize and go catch your girl, but more on that later....