SAN MIGUEL ISLAND, part of California’s Channel Islands National Park, lies 50km off the coast of Santa Barbara. The waters surrounding this windswept island teem with marine life, particularly seals and sealions – in fact, Point Bennett, on the island’s western tip, hosts the largest congregation of these animals anywhere in the world. On any given day, spotted harbour seals, California and Stellar sealions, Guadalupe and northern fur seals, and northern elephant seals haul out on gritty sandspit beaches and craggy outcrops, frolic through dense kelp forests and body-whomp in pounding surf. There are some 30,000 to 50,000 pinnipeds in these waters.
Of course, where there are plenty of pinnipeds, there are also plenty of predators. Great white sharks are known throughout this region – on some maps, the area…