Fur seal behaviour

[Emma NZ]

Hi all,
I was diving the other day in murky conditions in Valdivia (Chile), and two south american fur seals joined us for quite some time.
There were plenty of 'flyby's and the usual seal acrobatics, but they were also doing some odd things - I wondered if anyone is familiar with the behaviour and knows what it is all about.

One lay on the reef, belly down, facing my buddy. They were pretty much head to head, and the seal stayed there for quite some time, occasionally letting bubbles out of its mouth.

Also, many times they approached or faced us making large and repeated up and down movement of the head and neck (actually all the body forward of the pectoral fins - or whatever you call them on a seal...arms? ;o)

Anyway, it was all very cool (if not slightly freaky), but it would be nice to know if that was playfulness...aggression...flirtation ;o)

I've very rarely dived with seals, so maybe they do this all the time...

Thanks
)

 

[ScubaSteve]

While that would be an amazing experience, I too would have been a little freaked out. The last thing you want is true aggression out of something underwater which could have been avoided. I think it would have been great to be face to face with one on the bottom...did you happen to have a camera?

 

[Emma NZ]

yeah, but my camera fogged up, and the vis was fairly atrocious...will attempt to put up a couple. despite the technical issues, I quite like them, especially the 'incoming' one. gives some idea of the activity levels involved. I didn't like to use flash incase it bothered them, also the water was so full of particles I guess they would just have been dark shapes behind the snow anyway. I will attempt to photoshop them up one day to see what I can get out of them.
Must say also it is nice to experience something like that without the constant preoccupation of recording it photographically. there is something to be said for actually experiencing it at the time eh.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Very cool. I hope someday I can have a wild encounter such as that. The only time I think I say a seal was in Nova Scotia and the vis was bad enough and the "Shape" was far enough away I can only say it was a larger, swift swimming object in about 25 feet of water. So, it was either a seal or JAWS so I am sticking with the seal (or sea lion or whatever would be in Nova Scotia). Thanks for posting the pics.

 

[Andy077]

yeah, but my camera fogged up, and the vis was fairly atrocious...will attempt to put up a couple. despite the technical issues, I quite like them, especially the 'incoming' one. gives some idea of the activity levels involved. I didn't like to use flash incase it bothered them, also the water was so full of particles I guess they would just have been dark shapes behind the snow anyway. I will attempt to photoshop them up one day to see what I can get out of them.
Must say also it is nice to experience something like that without the constant preoccupation of recording it photographically. there is something to be said for actually experiencing it at the time eh.

Lovely pics, I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of color correcting them, I can do the full-size ones for you if you like.

here;s a link to the photoshop action I used, if you want to download it and use it yourself good luck! and congrats!

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1042430#

 

[TSandM]

I hope you get an answer from someone who knows about seal behavior. We had a similar experience with a Hawaiian monk seal last year. She got down on the bottom, and came toward us slowly, eventually stopping just a couple of feet away from me and sitting there and looking at me. Her expression was so gentle, it was tempting to believe she was just being friendly, but then again, I don't speak seal.

On our way back in, she rejoined us, and that time she went just past and rolled over onto her back and lay on the sand. I felt that HAD to be a friendly gesture, since almost nothing exposes its belly unless it feels secure. But I'd love to hear if anyone knows about seal behavior, and can interpret these incidents more accurately than my inferences.

 

[Emma NZ]

>>Lovely pics, I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of color correcting them, I >>can do the full-size ones for you if you like

Thanks! I won't send you the biggies, I've got a bunch of stuff I need to process, but I am on my very old laptop which can't cope with such things...will do it all one day on a less aged and infirm machine ;o). Definitely brought out a bit of the detail tho.
)

 

[Andy077]

>>Lovely pics, I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of color correcting them, I >>can do the full-size ones for you if you like

Thanks! I won't send you the biggies, I've got a bunch of stuff I need to process, but I am on my very old laptop which can't cope with such things...will do it all one day on a less aged and infirm machine ;o). Definitely brought out a bit of the detail tho.
)

Good luck! That action I linked makes it simple, I used in in CS3, processed a hundred or so in less than an hour