Seals at MacAbee Beach (Saturday)

[Gombessa]

We had a couple of very playful harbor seals causing mischief for us at MacAbee beach on Saturday. Funny thing is, we saw one on the surface at the beginning of the dive, but he must have waited about an hour or so before making his presence known underwater. Probably wanted to watch us and make sure our slow, goofy diver movements meant we were completely harmless to him.



It's not in the video, but these seals had their own buddy system. One would play with us while another kept a lookout from below (probably with shiv in fin just in case things went south).

 

[micboucher]

Great video Kenn! I love seal encounters. I'm gonna have to dive MacAbee again soon.

 

[ae3753]

Nice encounter and video.

 

[Standingbear56]

Great video! It almost looks like the seal was trying to nurse off of the diver in the beginning. Cute little fella (girl?) I guess the fins must have tasted good!

 

[Peter_C]

We were there a couple of weeks ago and there were tons of seals, but they never interacted with us. Looks like a fun dive

What heading did you guys take? Straight out, to the right, or left? How deep was your dive too? Curious as I have only dove there a couple of times.

 

[Anti-Hero]

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[Gombessa]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I think we really got the benefit of a long bottom time - the first half of the dive was completely uneventful and we were over sand trying to see if there was anything out past the kelp line. The fun stuff was all on our way back in.

Great video! It almost looks like the seal was trying to nurse off of the diver in the beginning. Cute little fella (girl?)

No, August is a dude, and he's already married, but I'll pass along the compliment

My fins seem none the worse for wear - I think the seals are just being playful, and definitely don't nibble on anything with any real force (thankfully).

What heading did you guys take? Straight out, to the right, or left? How deep was your dive too? Curious as I have only dove there a couple of times.

I think we headed straight out from the El Torito side, and descending in a shallow 20ft and then took a straight North heading. All of the action in the video seems to have taken place north of the beach, directly in front of the Spindrift Inn (the building on the other side of Macabee from the El Torito), at 35-45ft depth. Next time we're there, I want to try entering the beach from the NW shore and swimming directly there.

 

[Gombessa]

Video no longer available

Strange...I can still see it. Do you have a popup blocker installed??

Try it direct from Youtube:
YouTube - Sept 27 Macabee Seal Dive in Monterey

 

[micboucher]

Video no longer available

Are you trying to view it from behind a work firewall or something. I'm not able to view any YouTube videos at work.

 

[sarita75]

That's really adorable! I am ready to head down and dive and am thinking about taking a hookey day to do it.