They are out there... Closer than you think!

So.. The great thing about walking on the beach is how much things change everyday. New sand, new stones, new logs, no sand, huge waves, driftwood, baby seals, etcetera, etcetera.. Warning. This is my second post about shark attacks so if you are squeamish or a non believer you might want to skip it. This is all speculation on my part anyway but, that has never stopped me before.

Yesterday during my daily morning walk with Riley we almost immediately came across a baby seal. Actually a baby sea lion. You can tell by the ears, and the fact that they speak. This one was saying "get this stupid, though quite handsome, dog out of my face" "don't you know there is a law that says you need to stay back 150 feet from all marine mammals" Stupid Riley no matter how many times I tell him this simple rule.. He forgets! That's why I always carry his leash even though there is no one else on the beach for miles. Well.. with Riley secured, I took a good look at the seal and while small he seemed to be pretty healthy. So I let him be. Just like they will tell you to do when you call the marine mammal rescue line.

A few weeks back I came across 3 medium sized seals on the beach. 3 is a lot for any one day, so I call a few people, and the mammal rescue even returns my call. It is determined, that they were in fact, baby elephant seals. They are pretty big for pups, super cute, and have these huge round heads. They don't look anything like the adults. Anyway they looked like they were on their deathbed to me. Turns out they were just dead tired. They come in to sleep after their first long trek from the islands (75 miles I am told) By the time I came back later in the day to shoot a couple photos using my EF100-400mmL series lens and staying at least 150 feet back.. they were gone. So back to our new baby seal. Here comes the sad part..


I continue my walk down the beach and about 500 yards to the north there is a dead adult seal rolling back and forth in the surf. Dead seals are not that uncommon on the coast but, this one is fresh, and and has a pretty huge chunk of flesh taken out near his rear flippers. As you will see in the pictures it is a pretty round chunk, and there are also a couple of deep incisions (tooth) Immediately I am thinking this is probably the mother and was a victim of some toothy creature, making our new favorite baby seal an orphan.



Here's where my speculation comes in. Mother and baby are swimming in the nearby waters possibly in the shark zone about 3-4 miles north of here, yes Carpinteria.. at the harbor seal rookery/sanctuary. This is where the violent attack occurred back in March of 2006. Two baby seals had there heads bit right off by a toothy creature known as "whitey" There were witnesses to the this attack and it made front page news in the Coastal View. This is the same stretch of coast that my friend Billy and his wife were on SUP's paddling from Indicator to the Pier one beautiful morning. She had "whitey" do a pass by on her. Just rose to the surface, looked straight at her, and went back down.. Yikes! Anyway back to the seals. Harbor seals do not have ears and do not speak so they hired some volunteers from seal watch to speak on their behalf. Seal watch volunteers are located on the bluffs just above the rookery. Stay back! They use signs so they don't have to yell and scare the seals.. Wait.. they don't hear. Actually the signs are for the people that don't hear. Anyway.. Unless your dog is right in their face stay back..

More speculation. The wound is not debilitating so mom and baby manage to get away from said toothy creature. Unfortunately, the wound is near some major arteries so she eventually bleeds out and they both land on the beach in LC. At this point I am pretty convinced our baby seal is likely an orphan. Hopefully he has learned enough to feed and fend for himself. Lots of seals (sea lions) nearby. Surely one can help him. But he needed to get back to the water. It was low tide and quite far away. I thought I come back at high tide without Riley and convince him to get back in. Anyway.. He decided not to wait for high tide and casually slid off the rock and walked on down to waters edge and went in..

Side note: I use to work for the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network and love wild animals with a passion. We used to rescue everything from mice to coyotes. It is a great feeling to nurse one back to health and be there for the release. Most of what we dealt were animals in distress as a result of people, cars, dogs, cats, etc. I support that 100%. But if you have a naturally occurring death or circumstance, I think you need to take a step back and let nature take it's course. imo..I did a number of unnecessary rescues of these animals too. Only to have them put to sleep. I really believe they should have been left for the vultures, crows, opossums, other carrion eaters, if you know what I mean. From what I know.. The Marine Mammal Rescue which is separate from the Wildlife Rescue, will only get involved if it's is endangered by humans. They may move it to a quieter location or something. They may also get involved for research with some sick animals at times as well. Aside from that, they tend to let nature take it's course. Which is fine by me. God speed baby seal...