Dive buddy..

[alewar]

Generally speaking, divers should interact with marine life in its terms ... many creatures, seals especially, will initiate contact and interaction. If you "allow" the animal to interact, I see nothing wrong with it. They always have a choice to leave. If you force contact, you not only run the risk of stressing the animal, they may also mistake your intent as aggression, and act accordingly ... and that can lead to injury to either you or the animal. If, during interaction, a critter appears to want to escape, give it an escape route and let it go ... that's a clue that your interaction isn't wanted, and could lead to a bad outcome. If, on the other hand, the creature is initiating contact, then I don't see a problem with "playing".

that's a great romantic advice too

 

[Blyslv]

The skin of a fish must serve many functions. It aids in maintaining the osmotic balance, provides physical protection for the body, is the site of coloration, contains sensory receptors, and, in some fishes, functions in respiration. Mucous glands, which aid in maintaining the water balance and offer protection from bacteria, are extremely numerous in fish skin, especially in cyclostomes and teleosts. Since mucous glands are present in the modern lampreys, it is reasonable to assume that they were present in primitive fishes, such as the ancient Silurian and Devonian agnathans.

fish (animal) :: The skin -- Encyclopedia Britannica

The rest of the article is behind a "free trial" page for the Britannica site. But it is well documented that many species of fish have this protective coating.

This is an abstract of an article showing results of research in to the role that lectin plays in the protective musous coating on fish.

Since water is a perfect medium for both bacteria and parasitic microbes, fish skin is constantly exposed to pathogen attacks. It is generally believed that skin mucus serves a mechanical as well as biochemical barrier. Lectins, an important part of the mucus, are carbohydrate-binding proteins that are neither antibodies nor enzymes, yet play important roles in innate and adaptive immunity. Based on the structure of the carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) and their function, fish mucus lectins are classified as four types. Recent research has shed light on the structural diversity and functions in innate immunity of mucus lectins. Here, we reviewed recent research progress on the classification, biological properties and functions of fish mucus lectins. Analyses on other fish species are therefore important in clarifying lectin diversity and their functions in skin mucus.

[Progress in study on the skin mucus lectin... [Dongwuxue Yanjiu. 2013] - PubMed - NCBI

There are other sites with more detail about the hazards of touching seals, but I think I've been enough of a pedantic twit today....

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

fish (animal) :: The skin -- Encyclopedia Britannica

The rest of the article is behind a "free trial" page for the Britannica site. But it is well documented that many species of fish have this protective coating.

This is an abstract of an article showing results of research in to the role that lectin plays in the protective musous coating on fish.


[Progress in study on the skin mucus lectin... [Dongwuxue Yanjiu. 2013] - PubMed - NCBI

There are other sites with more detail about the hazards of touching seals, but I think I've been enough of a pedantic twit today....

... but a seal is not a fish ... in fact, it's a furred mammal.

Have you ever watched seals playing with each other? Have you ever noticed them crawling onto rocks? Surely if they had a mucus coating on their skin they would damage it through their own actions and interactions with each other far worse than any diver interaction would.

The same can be said for quite a few marine creatures ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Blyslv]

All types of human interaction with seals and pups is harmful and often results in the injury or death of the animal. Seals are protected under The Marine Mammal Act of 1972 making it illegal and punishable by law to "take" marine mammals without a permit. Even just harassing a marine mammal is considered a "take" under this law.

Harbor Seals

Take it or leave I guess, but it seems pretty clear that touching seals, or encouraging their approaching you or feeding them is a bad idea. It's possible that the person posting that video was also breaking federal law.

But who gives a damn right? We were put on this earth to exercise dominion, even if that means loving it to death.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Harbor Seals

Take it or leave I guess, but it seems pretty clear that touching seals, or encouraging their approaching you or feeding them is a bad idea. It's possible that the person posting that video was also breaking federal law.

But who gives a damn right? We were put on this earth to exercise dominion, even if that means loving it to death.

That's a bit overstated, and downright misrepresents what I said.

If you dive around harbor seals, interaction with them is often unavoidable ... they initiate the contact. I'll agree that you shouldn't feed them, just as you should not feed any other wild animal ... but harbor seals are curious and playful animals who frequently choose to interact with divers... and their doing so does not constitute harrassment on the part of the diver. If the seal is initiating the contact ... if you are not feeding, harming, or harrassing the animal ... you are NOT breaking the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

As I said before, there's a right and wrong way to interact with them ... the right way is to allow the animal to decide whether or not to initiate the contact. In reality, if a seal decides to interact with you, there's little you can do to prevent it short of exiting the water. We have seal interactions frequently where I dive ... whether we want them or not ... and often after a few moments you'll find yourself wishing they'd just go bother somebody else and leave you alone, especially if you're trying to take pictures. Besides kicking up a load of silt, they either eat or scare away all the things you're trying to take pictures of.

They're basically just underwater dogs ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Blyslv]

Bad doggies!

Did not mean to misrepresent, you are right.

Thanks for the education.

 

[bburville]

Average labrador male dog 34kg
Average grey seal bull 220kg

... still not sure why they want my gloves [video=youtube;cIch7J-S1Mw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIch7J-S1Mw[/video]

 

[bburville]

[video=youtube;Z4DoP94MHbQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4DoP94MHbQ&list=UUIEvGGGTGbmr_v97PNaadCg[/video]