For the past two days and evenings, a harbor seal pup has rested on West Seattle’s southend beaches. The hotline received a call late Thursday afternoon of a pup snoozing at a Brace Point neighborhood beach. Our responders found the somewhat thin, but very alert pup on the sandy beach. We established a tape perimeter and talked to neighbors about the pup’s need to rest and how critical this was to his (or her) survival. A group of men were about to launch kayaks for their yearly “race”, but agreeably changed their plans when they learned a pup was resting at the site. Humongous flipper hugs to them for showing such concern and respect for this little pup. The pup was still on the beach as darkness fell, but returned to the Sound overnight.

Yesterday, a report came in of a pup at Lincoln Park in the logs near our beach sign near Colman Pool. Our responder quickly arrived on scene and found the pup sound asleep nestled in the wood debris. He taped off the area, our volunteer scheduler was notified, an email titled “seal pup on the beach” was sent out to all volunteers from an iphone. A wave of volunteers helped out throughout the afternoon until dark when the pup, nicknamed Junior, began to stretch and stir, crawled over the logs, moseyed down to the water’s edge and swam off into the Salish Sea. A number of brand new volunteers were given experience educating the public about harbor seal biology and behavior. Thanks to all the fantastic volunteers who allowed Junior time to rest and warm up!

Through photo id, this pup has been positively identified as the same one at Brace Point the evening before.

Tags: Junior