Swimming with seals...

ChattingLil

ChattingLil

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anyone here done it?

Marc and I were swimming this evening and I did a rather spectacular running on water effort when a bunch of seals suddenly launched themselves into the creek. To say I nearly had a heart attack from fear is to put it mildly.

My question - is it safe to swim in close proximity to the seals? How close is it safe/ok to go in a dinghy to take photos?
 
Yep!
I was snorkelling when I was about 18 in Ceibwr Bay in West Wales. Usually the water there is crystal clear and you can see down 30' or more to the rocky bottom. There had been a storm, and the water was murky, but past experience was that if you dived down there was clear water underneath. I'd been down a couple of times, but as I swam down there was a huge pressure wave in the murky water. Completely forgot everything I'd ever learnt and mask filled with water and I swallowed water as I went for the surface in a panic.
As I surfaced, and took my mask off and gasped for air, I could hear families on the rocks saying 'Oooh look', but all I could focus on was an incredibly fetid fishy odour and as I got the water out of my eyes, saw some big eyes and whiskers of a seal facing me about 3 feet away! He looked at me for a few seconds and disappeared.

Wonderful experience in hindsight!..........not at the time
 
The only one that you really gotta worry about is the Leopard Seal... They eat people.

They swim much better than you, so if they are unhappy with your presence they will go away.... Have no Fear!


Were are you? I would love to take smwbo there!
 
Friends have dived with seals and said it was a wonderful experience (yes I was very jealous!)
I'm told you should leave it up to the seals whether they want to swim with you. A mother with cubs will be very protective and should be left well alone.
 
We have been lucky enough to do this several times in the Backwaters. As Wunja said, make sure it on their terms, be careful when there's young pups around and you should be fine.
 
Done it lots of times all over the UK!

They are usually very gentle and they love having their ears and under chin scratched! Just like a big dog really!

They can get a bit amourous in the breeding season. I've witnesed a rather large male seal getting very "friendly" with one of our larger female divers.....my how we laughed!
I've tried getting pretty close to the colonies on the east coast, but they seem very timid compared to other UK locations...

If they want to get close and have some interaction with humans they will, I would not recommend chasing them to get close though.

Good luck
 
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mitchc said:
They are usually very gentle and they love having their ears and under chin scratched! Just like a big dog really!
Click to expand...

:D nice pictures indeed - but see those teeth!? that's why I ran on water! Noticed you were tickling them with nice thick gloves. We were anchored at least 150m from where a group of them were basking on Sunday afternoon and then we went for a dip at near low water. There was still a bit of tide coming through, so we were making an effort to stay very close to the boat and then we noticed that 3 or 4 of them were coming quite close to us to have a nosey and check us out. Suddenly, the rest of the group entered the water and they all surfaced very close to us (well, it felt very close! :eek:.
 
They feel safer in the water so probably launched themselves because they felt threatened by you. It is great to see them do their "lifeboat launches" down the mud though, isn't it?
They are very inquisitive and keep popping up closer and closer to check you out if you sit quietly.
I sometimes wonder how much they can hear below water and are actually coming to tell us to "turn that bloomin' echo sounder off"
There was a tentative effort a while ago in the local press by a "wildlife expert" to stop boats anchoring in that creek because it disturbed the seals. Hopefully that has now died and the seals seem quite happy to share with us.
 
try whistling

you can often call seals in by whistling

I saw it done by a chap I interviewed for the BBC

he made a series of fluctuating low level whistling noises and they all came over to listen

I have heard that they are attracted to the sound of a violin

give it a try - what have you got to lose but your dignity

Dylan
 
ChattingLil said:
:D nice pictures indeed - but see those teeth!? that's why I ran on water! Noticed you were tickling them with nice thick gloves. We were anchored at least 150m from where a group of them were basking on Sunday afternoon and then we went for a dip at near low water. There was still a bit of tide coming through, so we were making an effort to stay very close to the boat and then we noticed that 3 or 4 of them were coming quite close to us to have a nosey and check us out. Suddenly, the rest of the group entered the water and they all surfaced very close to us (well, it felt very close! :eek:.
Click to expand...

That's actually the wife doing the tickling!!
They only ever (well so far) mouth your arms legs etc, it feels exactly the same as when playing with a big dog....at least it does through a nice thick drysuit:D
Shortly after those photo's I took a video of her literally cuddling it. We were on scuba and the seal spent a couple of minutes just letting her expelled air running through it's whiskers!
Here's a video taken by one of group to give you an idea!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPfdQiHzH0o

And I've got hundreds more photo's if you're interested!

I'm sure you'll be safe as long as you allow them to make the appoach and don't chase them
 
It seems strange things that spook them.
On Saturday there were about 30 on the mud banks in a creek. We motored slowly to within about 50 m and anchored, they took little notice.
My grand-daughter started to call them like dogs, she's very loud but they just looked.
A tripper boat came and ran aground right near them and a just couple flopped away.
2 Kayakers came by very slowly on the other side of the creek and they all stampeded for the water. Perhaps there is a genetic memory of Eskimos?
 
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