Announcer

Welcome to The Coolest Stuff on the Planet.

Matthew

Hi Rachel, Good Morning. This is The Coolest Stuff on the Planet, and my name is Matthew. Rachel, where are we going today?

Rachel

Today we are going to the Sea of Cortez. I must say, you sound a little bit different in the morning, Matt.

Matthew: So it is a little early, but guess what?

Rachel

Okay, tell me.

Matthew

The Sea of Cortez is a long strip of water located between Baja, California, which is Mexico, and the Mexican mainland.

Rachel

Which is also Mexico?

Matthew

Exactly. It’s also called the Gulf of California, and it’s unique because it’s surrounded by desert. In fact, it’s considered part of the Sonora Desert.

Rachel

It makes for really interesting sort of visuals, I guess because you have the desert-like things like cactus, but then you have the sea, so anyway.

Matthew

Two things that you generally don’t see, at least in films and images, you don’t see those two meshed together.

Rachel

Yeah, it’s kind of a weird juxtaposition, but so anyway, this sea has quite a few names besides the Gulf of California, the Sea of Cortez, and Jacques Cousteau was a big fan of this sea, and he once called it the world’s aquarium, which makes sense when you consider that the sea is a bastion of marine life. There are more than, or nearly 900 species of fish, and a very large constitution of sea life.

Matthew

There are two little islands in the Sea of Cortez called Lusus Lotus, and they host the largest colonies of sea lions in the entire area.

Rachel: So the sea lions, they head to these rocky islands to mate and to breed, and apparently they also like to hang out with humans, or I should say humans like to hang out with them there. So these little islands are a really popular stop for divers who come to play with these animals, which tend to be playful and curious animals, and in fact an interesting fact about California sea lions – these are the guys – you will see the famous circle seal. That is the California sea lion.

Matthew

That image that just came up in your head, oh and also on the screen probably.

Rachel

The ball on the nose?

Matthew

Yes.

Rachel

That’s the one.

Matthew

That’s them. So you might be thinking what makes these sea lions instead of seals? Well, it’s their ears ladies and gentlemen. Sea lions have external ear flaps, seals don’t. That’s why sometimes they are called eared seals.