Dinner Time: Hungry Sea Lion Boards Boat For Fish Supper

The hungry marine mammal followed the boat as it headed back to Cabo, San Lucas, in Mexico.

The male animal spotted an easy meal as 26-year-old scuba instructor Frankie Grant waved a live bait fish for him.

And the sea lion seemed happy to be fed as Frankie dropped the meal into its mouth.

The 40-strong colony of local sea lions includes five mammals that are brave enough to be fed by humans

He said: “I am pretty used to this behaviour. Here at the entrance of the marina we see it almost daily as the conditions here are just ideal for sea lion feeding.

“He was following in behind the boat. I waved a fish and he hopped right on the back waiting to get fed.

“They’re very friendly animals. When you see them underwater scuba diving they are very playful.

They are very curious of humans and they’ll come and blow bubbles in your face.”

Although Frankie is used to sea lions hopping onto the boat, he was amazed to see the animal so comfortable with those on board.

He said: “I was honestly very surprised that he stayed there for as long as he did. He stayed on the boat for a minute or so, just eying us, eying what was going on.”

But after the brief feeding session, the seal lion seemed irritated that Frankie had run out of food – and even peered into the bucket to check.

He said: “You can actually see on the video that even though I told him, ‘hey no there’s no more fish here’, he wanted to see for himself and he actually leaned in and put his eye over the bait bucket to make sure that there was no fish left for him to eat.

“They are very, very intelligent creatures.”