Types

• Sea lions will catch and eat fish, with some species known to have eaten at least 50 different kinds of fish. Squid and octopi are also favorite foods of a sea lion. The largest of the sea lions is the Steller sea lion, weighing up to 2,200 lbs. This sea lion, in addition to fish and squid, will also kill and eat other seals when the opportunity arises, as well as sea birds.
  
  

Function

• A sea lion can dive to as deep as 600 feet, staying underwater for 40 minutes at a time. In such circumstances, light may be at a premium. The sea lion detects food with the help of its sensitive whiskers, known as vibrissa, which attach to the mammal's upper lip. The animal can rotate them and use them to feel fish, squid and other potential meals that it encounters.
  
  

Behavior

• To confuse large schools of fish and make them easier to catch, sea lions will feed as a group in many instances. The mammal is a nocturnal hunter, doing much of its eating from nine at night to six in the morning, states the Marine Mammals website. Sea lions may hunt close to shore or as far as 100 miles from the coast. The type of fish they catch depends on their location and on how plentiful certain species are.
  
  

Milk

• The female sea lion will typically have one pup each year once she reaches sexual maturity. The mother's milk is quite rich in fat, notes the San Diego Zoo website, which allows the pup to grow the necessary layer of blubber to protect itself from the cold waters in which it lives. The pup will drink its mother's milk for as long as a year before weaning off it and pursuing the regular diet of the species.
  
  

Considerations

• Where salmon are plentiful, the sea lion will wait at the mouths of river in the ocean and partake of the breeding fish as they return to their spawning grounds. The adult sea lion males will not eat at all during the breeding season, as hunting would take them from the mating territories they establish. Sea lions often swallow stones, says the Sea World website; theories suggest the rocks add ballast or that the stones help the seal digest food. The species gets its water from the creatures it digests, only on rare occasion drinking the salty seawater of its environment.