Seal Slap

On my morning walk along the West Bay Walkway seldom a day passes but I see something interesting and new (to me). What you're seeing here is a Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) engaged in some communicative behavior. Harbor Seals communicate underwater vocally but they also communicate by slapping the water or themselves with their flippers as in the above photo. Normally they swim around without a lot of splashing. However, to mark a fishing territory or during mating they also use this slapping communication method. You can see (and hear) a few slaps in the short video below. There were several of these seals slapping while I watched and they continued for about twenty minutes.