Bull seal checks out the humans
| 20 |
| Jul |
| 2010 |
The weather is making life very difficult this week, with forecasts unusually difficult to read. Thus far we have just about managed to find the best weather windows for our trips but yesterday that meant light rain as opposed to no rain!
Our intrepid passengers were determined to brave the (surprisingly warm but soggy) elements and we had a great trip. Ray Mears is right when he says that the key with bad weather is not to let it get into your head (that and good waterproofs).
Just as we were about to head back to St Justinian we came across a bull seal lazing around on the surface so we slowed down to take a look. He eyed us with considerable interest and swam towards the boat. It's not uncommon for bull seals to show no fear of people (they're at the top of the food chain and they don't really do fear) but there's usually a degree of wariness since they're wild.
This one was unnervingly calm as he came right up to the boat and then circled it in a passable impression of Jaws. He slowly eyed up the passengers (who very sensibly heeded our pleas to keep well away!) and then he saw Diesel. Bull seals have been known to attack dogs in the water, although it's rare. We weren't taking any chances so in case our overly friendly retriever decided to get too close to the tubes we attached him to the console.
The bull was clearly contemplating trying to get onto the boat but fortunately Shearwater sits rather high on the water and he decided that it wasn't worth the effort. Seals have been known to sleep in boats (boats conveniently move up and down with the tide, unlike rocks) but they're not usually keen to share them with humans.
We were rather torn between the obvious excitement of having a wild animal choose to come up really close for some time and and unnerving impression that something wasn't right. He seemed unhealthily used to humans, perhaps having been handled a lot as a pup or learned to steal food from fishermen. He seemed a bit underweight too but there was plenty of mischief in his eyes! He was the highlight of the trip, although I didn't take kindly to the way he was looking at my dog!
