Yesterday morning, Seal Sitters’ hotline operator Dave fielded a call about a seal pup onshore at Lowman Beach. First responder Lynn was on the scene within 10 minutes and, with the help of a very kind woman named Melinda, established a large yellow tape perimeter utilizing stakes, driftwood, trees and signposts - pretty much anything she could wrap tape around!

Volunteer coordinator Karin began calling volunteers who had entered time on our online calendar. An “APB” was sent out to all others via iPhone with the message that there was a seal on the beach. Throughout the cold day with a steady northwest wind, volunteers watched in shifts over the very thin, tiny pup nicknamed PeeWee. An off-leash, unattended dog ran across the beach with no owner in sight, but thankfully didn’t notice the sleeping pup - potentially, a very dangerous situation for the weak and vulnerable PeeWee.

Mid-afternoon, PeeWee began a laborious crawl back to Puget Sound - stopping to snooze awhile at the water’s edge and finally swimming off into the dark gray waters after 4pm. Chilled volunteers gathered up stranding materials and returned home to warm up. Many thanks to all the dedicated volunteers who gave this sweet pup some quiet time on the beach, gaining the strength necessary to forage and, hopefully, pack on some much-needed blubber.

Tags: PeeWee

Recently, it was brought to our attention that someone from the public submitted a very kind comment about Seal Sitters to the Seattle Times. The compliment ran in the December 29th “Rant and Rave” column.

A thoughtful kudo goes a long way to warm up a volunteer who has braved the elements to protect a pup on the beach and educate passersby. We so appreciate the support of the public. We live in such a special and unique place filled with so many species of shore birds and marine mammals - all of whom deserve the space to rest and forage undisturbed in our Puget Sound waters.

There has been a lull of late in seal pup activity, though pups have been sighted on offshore platforms and resting in protected areas of Jack Block Park. This morning, however, Seal Sitters’ hotline received a report from a ferry worker of a pup on the beach just south of the dock. Our responder arrived promptly, but the pup had returned to the Sound.

Late in the afternoon, the hotline rang again - this time about a pup near Colman Pool. Thanks to the West Seattle Blog’s own Tracy Record for calling us and protecting the pup until our first responder arrived. The pup, possibly the same one from earlier in the day at the nearby Fauntleroy ferry dock, returned to the water shortly thereafter. Tracy nicknamed the pup, appropriately enough, Cameo, for his brief appearance. Perhaps Cameo will be back tomorrow.

Tags: Cameo