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.

Summer Seal

I was down at Fleming Beach a few nights ago and was pleasantly surprised by seeing no less than five Harbor Seals lolling around in the clear water near the fishing dock. I think they wait there for sport fisherman to bring their boats in and clean their fish. There's usually plenty of scraps. These seals were really enjoying a lazy evening in the water while waiting for the boats to come in, some of them floating on their backs and others nudging and rolling over each other.