You may already have seen Vladimir’s slideshow on Facebook or on Frogma. You may have read Ian Frazier’s New Yorker article “Seals Return to New York City.” But this even trumps that:
Small cetaceans hanging out around the Narrows.
I don’t know if it’s a dolphin or a porpoise but it IS exciting.
And if that were not enough, last Sunday Vladimir and Johna also saw
pinnipeds. I am surprised by the total disregard by these cetaceans and pinnipeds of regulations governing their approach of paddlers. You’d think they’d show a little restraint, but . . .
Here’s an interesting video about what NOT to do with wild animals, in this case an ijsbjorn. Polar bears appeared on this blog once before, thanks to Peter Mello.
Many thanks to Vladimir for permission to use his fotos from last Sunday. A previous post featuring Vladimir’s fotos is here. Click here for more stories on sea creatures that just do NOT follow the rules.
tugster: a waterblog 
11 comments
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March 31, 2011 at 8:20 am
Buck
Wildlife is everywhere; even in a busy harbour!
March 31, 2011 at 9:26 am
Anonymous
Can’t vouch for harbor seals, but I know from scuba diving off the Channel Islands in CA, that the sea lions would often swim up to me and bark in my face, and some times swim in loops through a divers bubbles
March 31, 2011 at 9:52 am
Bonnie
The porpoise photo is so spectacular but I also think that that is the best kayak-platform point-and-shoot photo of a harbor seal that I’ve ever seen taken in this area.
I still wish somebody had had a camera the day the seal jumped up on Tim Gamble’s bow.
March 31, 2011 at 11:03 am
paulb
That is a harbor porpoise, Phoca vitulina, I believe, also referred to as a puffing pig.
March 31, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Mage Bailey
Did that pinniped bark at you? Did you feed him.
March 31, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Bonnie
We’ve mostly got harbor seals here – no barking and mostly they prefer to catch their own fish, their interaction with paddlers is limited to watching you. The one that jumped up on my friend Tim’s bow, now, he said that the expert opinion on that (maybe from Paul Sieswerda our local seal scientist) was that the seal had probably been fed. So at one level, the story was cute and funny, and I do really wish someone had gotten a picture, but it was also sort of unfortunate that the seal’s natural wariness of people had been messed with that badly. They definitely seem to be curious about kayakers but normally having a harbor seal come as close as the one in the picture Vlad got is considered REALLY cool.
March 31, 2011 at 1:47 pm
tugster
back when i used to kayak along the coast of NH (Seabrook harbor) and Maine (Kennebunkport) i used to turn and look behind me periodically; invariably, none closer than 30 or so feet . . . were a half dozen seals watching me. this happened in the cooler months when no other recreational boats were around. sometimes i’d turn around toward them, and they’d immediately dive and i’d watch then glide past below the surface. i imagined them cocked on a side as they passed underwater, getting a closer glimpse from a safer underwater vantage point. then they’d resurface behind me. never carried a camera back then.
March 31, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Bonnie
Sometime’s we’ll paddle backwards to fool them into surfacing where we can see them. A Canadian friend also says that if you just sit still & scratch or tap your hull, they will sometimes be curious enough to come in closer and closer.
April 1, 2011 at 7:21 am
Ben Orlove
Back when I lived in northern California and would kayaking around Monterey or in Elkhorn Slough, we’d see sea otters and sea lions quite often. Great to know that their relatives come here too. I look forward to getting a paddle into the water somewhere near here.
April 1, 2011 at 9:08 am
Bonnie
Ben, I don’t know if you’re on Facebook or not but I was just talking about Elkhorn Slough yesterday!
April 4, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Paddle with a PigFish. « Nature Calendar
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