- Messages
- 93,466
- Reaction score
- 91,830
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
One of Seattle's most popular dive sites is also a popular hangout for harbor seals. And a mother seal and pup have been teaming up with divers lately. Mom has been working hard to teach Junior the technique of dining by divelight ... to the delight and/or chagrine of the divers involved (depending on how important visibility is to you). Well, as Junior gets older he has discovered that divers can be useful for more than just an easy meal.
Last evening Jimmie and I headed out on a very low tide. We swam out to the faded yellow buoy, dropped down to about 30 fsw, and were almost instantly met by our diving companions for the evening. They were in rare form, doing high-speed fly-byes and barrel rolls ... trailing little silt cyclones in their wake ... as we made our way down the boundary rope. Now, vis wasn't so hot to begin with ... maybe in the range of 8-10 feet ... but our little phocine friends reduced it to total silt-out with their antics. That wouldnt have been too bad weve grown accustomed to this nightly routine except that Junior is discovering new games, and last night we graduated to the status of Toys.
As we were slowly making our way downslope hed come swooping toward us out of the darkness and silt, making high-speed passes underneath us. This can be startling when youre only about 2 feet off the bottom to begin with, and you have less than a second to see him coming before he's almost brushing your stomach going by. This went on for several minutes, till we finally got to some pilings where he couldnt maneuver as deftly with those huge stationary objects in the way. We found three large octopus tucked neatly into the pilings ... all the while getting buzzed by the little guy ... we then turned toward the I-beams, slowly making our way up from 105 to about 85 fsw.
Suddenly I felt something tugging on my left elbow which startled me a bit, since Jimmie was on my right. After nearly jumping out of my drysuit, I managed to glimpse Junior nipping at my arm fortunately he wasnt able to get it in his mouth, and was more nudging me with his muzzle than actually trying to bite me. I think he just wanted some attention. So I reached over and scratched his head. Like any other pup, he promptly turned over and presented his tummy. OK ... so I scratched that too. Its probably not smart doing this to a wild critter, but he seemed to like it. At least till Mom came by and nudged him away from me (probably reminding him that dining by divelight is serious business). So they turned to the pursuit of a school of salmon fry that kept swimming into our light beams.
We proceeded to a rockpile where a wolf eels been hanging out, but there was little chance of seeing her tonight. Frankly, with those two seals swooping around I was hoping she stayed tucked as far back into her den as possible. We looked for the decorated warbonnet pair wed seen down there last week, but no luck. We did, however, find a smaller pair over at the bent end of the I-beam, so it wasnt a total bust. Finally, we were getting close to deco so we headed back upslope, stopping at another rock pile at about 40 fsw to check on an octopus that usually dens there (not home tonight). All the while, Junior was continuing his game of swimming underneath us occasionally nipping at fins or drysuit ... and stopping for a quick scratch on head, back, or tummy.
As we approached our safety stop, Jimmie started having some issues with his drysuit dump valve. I was trying to pay attention to him, in case he needed help, but Junior had other ideas. At one point, while I was hovering next to Jimmie and not paying attention to Juniors antics, he swam underneath me and got pinned between me and the rip rap underneath where I was hovering. That was eery having a harbor seal wedged between my stomach and the bottom. I could feel his tail whapping into my chest as he struggled to get free needless to say I responded as quickly as possible to let him out of there.
After the safety stop we did a vertical ascent between Jimmies issues and the fact that there was essentially zero vis, it just seemed the thing to do. As we broke the surface, a third face appeared right next to ours. The little guys expression was priceless as if to say come back, I want to play some more. He followed along as we surface-swam to shore, and didnt leave till we were standing up taking our fins off.
I love playing with kids, and seal kids are no exception but I am a bit worried that hes becoming too domesticated. Nonetheless, despite the mess him and his mom kicked up, he was a lot of fun to have along as a dive companion. I just hope the little guy curbs his enthusiasm as he bulks up, or hell soon discover a new game bowling for divers
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Last evening Jimmie and I headed out on a very low tide. We swam out to the faded yellow buoy, dropped down to about 30 fsw, and were almost instantly met by our diving companions for the evening. They were in rare form, doing high-speed fly-byes and barrel rolls ... trailing little silt cyclones in their wake ... as we made our way down the boundary rope. Now, vis wasn't so hot to begin with ... maybe in the range of 8-10 feet ... but our little phocine friends reduced it to total silt-out with their antics. That wouldnt have been too bad weve grown accustomed to this nightly routine except that Junior is discovering new games, and last night we graduated to the status of Toys.
As we were slowly making our way downslope hed come swooping toward us out of the darkness and silt, making high-speed passes underneath us. This can be startling when youre only about 2 feet off the bottom to begin with, and you have less than a second to see him coming before he's almost brushing your stomach going by. This went on for several minutes, till we finally got to some pilings where he couldnt maneuver as deftly with those huge stationary objects in the way. We found three large octopus tucked neatly into the pilings ... all the while getting buzzed by the little guy ... we then turned toward the I-beams, slowly making our way up from 105 to about 85 fsw.
Suddenly I felt something tugging on my left elbow which startled me a bit, since Jimmie was on my right. After nearly jumping out of my drysuit, I managed to glimpse Junior nipping at my arm fortunately he wasnt able to get it in his mouth, and was more nudging me with his muzzle than actually trying to bite me. I think he just wanted some attention. So I reached over and scratched his head. Like any other pup, he promptly turned over and presented his tummy. OK ... so I scratched that too. Its probably not smart doing this to a wild critter, but he seemed to like it. At least till Mom came by and nudged him away from me (probably reminding him that dining by divelight is serious business). So they turned to the pursuit of a school of salmon fry that kept swimming into our light beams.
We proceeded to a rockpile where a wolf eels been hanging out, but there was little chance of seeing her tonight. Frankly, with those two seals swooping around I was hoping she stayed tucked as far back into her den as possible. We looked for the decorated warbonnet pair wed seen down there last week, but no luck. We did, however, find a smaller pair over at the bent end of the I-beam, so it wasnt a total bust. Finally, we were getting close to deco so we headed back upslope, stopping at another rock pile at about 40 fsw to check on an octopus that usually dens there (not home tonight). All the while, Junior was continuing his game of swimming underneath us occasionally nipping at fins or drysuit ... and stopping for a quick scratch on head, back, or tummy.
As we approached our safety stop, Jimmie started having some issues with his drysuit dump valve. I was trying to pay attention to him, in case he needed help, but Junior had other ideas. At one point, while I was hovering next to Jimmie and not paying attention to Juniors antics, he swam underneath me and got pinned between me and the rip rap underneath where I was hovering. That was eery having a harbor seal wedged between my stomach and the bottom. I could feel his tail whapping into my chest as he struggled to get free needless to say I responded as quickly as possible to let him out of there.
After the safety stop we did a vertical ascent between Jimmies issues and the fact that there was essentially zero vis, it just seemed the thing to do. As we broke the surface, a third face appeared right next to ours. The little guys expression was priceless as if to say come back, I want to play some more. He followed along as we surface-swam to shore, and didnt leave till we were standing up taking our fins off.
I love playing with kids, and seal kids are no exception but I am a bit worried that hes becoming too domesticated. Nonetheless, despite the mess him and his mom kicked up, he was a lot of fun to have along as a dive companion. I just hope the little guy curbs his enthusiasm as he bulks up, or hell soon discover a new game bowling for divers
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
