When a small seal pup came ashore on the rocks at Harbor Island this afternoon, there was concern among port workers that the pup might be injured. Vigor Marine’s security officer on duty gave our hotline a call inquiring if we might check him out.

Our responders arrived on the scene prepared to do a possible capture and transport of the animal for treatment. Instead, though, we found a seemingly healthy and alert pup resting below a pier, dwarfed beside the US Coast Guard’s moored heavy icebreaker ship, the Polar Star.

Nicknamed Charlie by dock workers, the pup has been hanging around the floating docks near the pier for some time now. The noisy activity of people and machinery don’t seem to phase him too much. However, when the pup unexpectedly showed up on shore today, his slow maneuvering across the rocks seemed worrisome to some. We observed Charlie’s behavior for quite some time, but could see nothing unusual. With short little front flippers and rear ones that don’t rotate forward for locomotion, moving up from the water across large jagged rocks is not the easiest task for a seal pup. It was difficult to judge body weight because of his position on the rocks, but his eyes and nostrils were clear - a good sign! As we left the shipyard, we distributed our contact information among workers in case any other concerns arose.

Tags: Charlie