Over the past week, Uno has been true to form, arriving virtually daily at Cove 3 by the Water Taxi landing near high tide and returning to Elliott Bay late afternoon or early evening, close to the subsequent flood tide. Today, however, she decided to mix things up.

First Responder Robin wasn't expecting to see Uno until at least noon today, closer to high tide, so was surprised when her phone rang at 8:30 am. Hotline Operator Julia had received a call about a seal scared into the water at Cove 2, the popular dive cove on the opposite side of the Water Taxi and fishing pier. When Robin arrived minutes later, diving instructor (and Seal Sitters volunteer) Richard said his scuba class had accidentally spooked an unseen seal who was resting on the rocks. As we chatted, we watched a curious little seal trail within feet of divers’ bubbles in the cove.

When the seal disappeared from view, Robin checked Cove 3, but that beach was empty. After hanging around for some time, she checked the nearby shoreline, but no seals. Just as she was heading home about 9:30, she decided to check Cove 3 one last time. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a little white flash in the water, just a few feet out in the Bay. Uno, determined to get an early rest, crawled onto the pebbled beach.

Sending out a quick text letting other First Responders know Uno was back, Robin started stretching tape and gave Scheduler Karen a heads up to line up the troops. After making a barrage of calls and doing an awesome job lining up a string of volunteers, Karen (right) came down to do some beach time as well.



First Responders Dana and Lynn (left) came down with extra materials. It was another very long day with a steady stream of people who were captivated by the fuzzy white weaner. There were plenty of volunteers on the calendar today.

Volunteers Jay and Dori (photo below), John, Helen, Libby, Kristen, and Cathy all did a fantastic job answering the many questions and keeping the bustling area relatively quiet. First Responders David and Eilene and Seal Sitters’ valuable educator Buzz Shaw, engaged the public with detailed info on harbor seal behavior. The most common question was “Where’s Mom?” The answer was that Uno is anywhere from 5-7 months old and her mom has long been out of the picture, since harbor seal pups are weaned and entirely on their own at 4-6 weeks old.


Late in the afternoon, Uno started to make the slo-mo, over 2 hour trek back toward the receding water. She’d crawl a couple of feet closer to the tideline and then settle in for a wee snooze. Then, Uno would wake up and crawl a couple more feet and take another little snooze.

Finally, at precisely 5pm, with cold volunteers silently cheering her on, Uno scooted the last few feet and disappeared into the gray waters to forage, just as darkness began to fall. Happy volunteers gathered up materials and disappeared, too, off to do some evening foraging of their own.

Beautiful Uno is a tremendous ambassador for harbor seals, the most commonly seen marine mammals in Puget Sound, and Seal Sitters volunteers (including Libby, Buzz and Helen shown above) were outstanding ambassadors today for NOAA’s Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

Tags: Uno