Accosted by a harbor seal - friendly, or territorial?

[Leejnd]

My husband and I spent last week on our sailboat out at Santa Cruz Island. We did a couple dives at Fry's Harbor on the north side of the island, and on our second dive, as we explored the west wall of the small anchorage, we were accosted by a very frisky, incredibly ENORMOUS!!! harbor seal. It was really a wild experience - not to mention rather nerve-wracking, as I wasn't sure if the seal was being friendly, or possibly territorial and aggressive. We don't know if it was a male or female, but we've been referring to it as "he" because it was just so HUGE and fat, so we figured it had to be a bull. (Either that, or a supremely well-fed female named "Bertha.)

Anyway, whatever the gender, he seemed to really develop a thang for my husband - he would get right up in his face and nip at him, and a couple times Charlie reached out and rubbed his belly. This got him even more excited - he'd go spiraling off in a cloud of bubbles, then come back for more. Several times he wriggled up behind him and seemed to be trying to get downright amorous with him.

He also came up to me several times, right up in my face, nipping at my gear and my mask. It all kinda freaked me out, as I was concerned that he might rip my regulator out or some such thing - not a good thing to happen at 46 fsw in the middle of a kelp forest. So we thumbed the dive after about 20 minutes of this, and surface-swam to the other side of the anchorage, assuming he'd stay on the west wall. We descended again, and after about 10 minutes - there he was again! And just as frisky as before. We managed to keep him at arms length and finish our dive.

We've been debating what was really going on - was he being territorial/aggressive? Or was he just being friendly, or curious? Not being experts in pinniped behavior, we really don't know! I got a bit nervous because when we were in the Galapagos in October, we were told to stay far away from the bull sea lions who would swim back and forth in figure-8's patrolling their beach where they had their harem of females, and they apparently can get very nasty if they feel challenged. So I thought that might be what was happening with the harbor seal.

But then I remembered this thread from December, which I even posted to!

Pinniped Porn

This is very similar to what happened to us. (If you watch the embedded video - our frisky buddy was a good TWICE the size of that one! No lie!)

I'd love to get some opinions...or, even better, input from someone who actually knows something about harbor seal behavior. Were we in any danger? Or were we just having a charming wildlife encounter with an epically overweight sea creature who had the hots for my husband?

 

[peterbj7]

I've often played with seals in the kelp "forests" off north-east England. They love yellow fins, and I always make sure to have some on when I go there. 99.9% of the time they're simply playing. But do remember that they're immensely strong.

 

[TSandM]

The seals at our local training site can get very cuddly and very mischievous. They routinely nip fins, and Bob, somewhere, has a photo of one who turned belly up and came up belly-to-belly with him, and looked him in the face.

I don't speak seal, so they unnerve me, but I have never heard any story of aggressive behavior on the part of a harbor seal. I've had them body-slam me in pursuit of fish, but it was impersonal. I have, on the other hand, read accounts of aggressive bull sea lions.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

 

[drbill]

Harbor seals in my experience tend to be more shy and less interactive than sea lions. However, I have had them play with me on occasion. One even played catch with me and my buddy using a sea cucumber. Sea lions are more likely to interact with a diver and nip at their fins, at least out here on Catalina and down at Los Islotes off La Paz.

 

[Cave Diver]

Harbor seals in my experience tend to be more shy and less interactive than sea lions. However, I have had them play with me on occasion. One even played catch with me and my buddy using a sea cucumber. Sea lions are more likely to interact with a diver and nip at their fins, at least out here on Catalina and down at Los Islotes off La Paz.

How likely are either to be dangerous, either intentionally or by accident?

 

[Leejnd]

Phil, yeah, that's the video! That's more or less what happened to us, just on a...ahem..."larger" scale. I took the liberty of embedding that video on our boat blog, so our family & friends can see what we're talking about. (I wish I'd had my own camera down there, but I didn't. ).

I don't speak seal, so they unnerve me, but I have never heard any story of aggressive behavior on the part of a harbor seal. I've had them body-slam me in pursuit of fish, but it was impersonal. I have, on the other hand, read accounts of aggressive bull sea lions.

Yes, the bull sea lions in the Galapagos (which are California sea lions, we were told) were quite scary! We saw more California sea lions in the Galapagos than we ever have in California. It was strange - we've never seen the bull-guarding-the-harem behavior in CA, but we saw it more times than we can count in Galapagos. And they were the biggest, scariest looking sea lions we've ever seen! According to our naturalist, the bulls fight to win dominance over a harem of cows, then spend all the next few months patrolling the borders of their beach, until challenged by another bull to a fight. When we were diving and snorkeling, we were told to give these patrolling bulls a wide berth, as they can get very hostile. But when a bull is not in current domination of a harem, they are quite peaceful and playful. I've never seen that kind of behavior in CA - I've played with sea lions many times, mainly out at Anacapa, and they always seem just fun-loving and frisky. But even those sea lions have never gotten quite as up-close-and-personal as our horny harbor seal did!

Harbor seals in my experience tend to be more shy and less interactive than sea lions. However, I have had them play with me on occasion. One even played catch with me and my buddy using a sea cucumber. Sea lions are more likely to interact with a diver and nip at their fins, at least out here on Catalina and down at Los Islotes off La Paz.

I too thought harbor seals mainly kept to themselves, compared to sea lions...which is why I was concerned that our buddy was perhaps exhibiting territorial behavior. But now I'm thinking he was just friendly...I hope, anyway!

How likely are either to be dangerous, either intentionally or by accident?

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was wondering!

 

[jlyle]

I've never heard of an aggressive harbor seal. Normally shy, harbor seals that come to play are a real treat. They do have claws and one time I was concerned about possibly getting a hole in my drysuit, but I've never been afraid of them.

Sealions, on the other hand, can be playful, but if one blows bubbles in your face you will want to back off. Sealions can and do bite.

 

[tkdgodess]

i've been in a group of very playful harbour seals on a "harbour seal dive" (snake island, nanaimo, bc(. They were waiting for us. I kept my hands pinned in my armpits, they were bumping right into us, at one point it looked as if one was trying to turn off my buddy's air..... the boat captain said they have the jaws of a black bear (bite urchins for food!)so that's why I kept my hands buried. It's not my favorite dive. I've had a one-eyed harbour seal (big one!) follow us a whole entire dive and kept looking at me with his one creepy eye.

When I encounter harbour seals which is often, I ignore them and don't encourage any playful, curious behavior. I never touch them.

 

[merxlin]

LeeAnne, we were on Santa Cruz Thurs-Fri & Sat. I swear I saw the same one, but he was kickin it in the kelp, smoking a cigarette and having a cocktail!