Summer on the Olympic Peninsula is an exciting time no matter who you are, but for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center Marine Mammal Stranding Network (PTMSC MMSN), summer begins our busiest time of year for one main reason; June-August is harbor seal pupping season. As part of NOAA’s West Coast Stranding Network, PTMSC responds to stranded or entangled marine mammals from the Dosewallips River in Brinnon to Port Williams County Park in Sequim – approximately 125 miles of shoreline! Harbor seals make up the majority of our stranding calls, and the following story is just one example of the dozens of calls we respond to over the summer.
This story starts on the morning of July 28 after receiving a call from a couple in the Port Ludlow Marina. The couple, Jeff and Sue, told us that a harbor seal had given birth in their dinghy early that morning. They saw an adult harbor seal on their dinghy around 5:30 AM, and didn’t realize anything was different until they went out later that morning on their sailboat, where they found a newborn pup wriggling in the bottom of their attached dinghy. When harbor seals give birth on land, it’s usually on beaches, occasionally docks – rarely ever on boats.
Despite the joy of seeing a newborn harbor seal up close, there was a problem: the mother harbor seal could easily go in and out of the dinghy, but the pup was too small to climb up and over the sides. The dinghy was also too small for the mother harbor seal to get in next to the pup to allow it to nurse. Jeff and Sue told us the mother was being aggressive towards them, barking and lunging from the dinghy if they walked near the back of their boat. All of these issues meant that this harbor seal pup was stranded – any marine mammal that cannot return to the water under its own power is considered stranded, so it was time for the stranding network to respond.
As the AmeriCorps member responsible for monitoring our hotline and organizing MMSN responses, I arrived at the Port Ludlow Marina with another one of our MMSN volunteers, Deisy. Together, we met up with the marina manager, Kori, who gave us a ride out to the sailboat with our crate, salmon net, and seal blocker (a plastic tub lid), dressed in our uniforms of Tyvek suits/waders, gloves, and boots.
When we boarded Jeff and Sue’s sailboat, the Zephyrus, we explained what the plan would be: Checking the pup for any obvious injuries or medical issues, and attempting to put the pup back in the water to reunite with mom if all seemed well. Deisy and I carefully stepped from the Zephyrus to the attached dinghy, and we saw a dark black harbor seal pup, active and vocal, wriggling around in the bottom of the boat in a significant amount of afterbirth (thank goodness for waterproof boots and Tyvek suits!) Climbing into the dinghy while keeping an eye on the mother in the water about 30 feet away, we did a quick health check on the pup. While I lifted the pup, Deisy checked to make sure that its umbilical cord site looked healthy and that it did not have any obvious injuries. Throughout the few minutes of handling the pup, the mother seal was slapping the water with her fins, a warning that tells other animals, specifically us in this case, “Go away!” Mother harbor seals can abandon their pups if people get too close and interact with them, but based on the mother’s behavior, it seemed less likely she would swim away and we decided it was worth the risk to attempt to reunite them.
After confirming it was a healthy pup at a good weight, I lowered the pup into the water. Harbor seal pups can begin swimming within an hour after birth; however, pups aren’t immediate fans of the water, and the pup quickly tried to climb back in the boat. While looking over the side to see how the pup was swimming, the mother seal had gotten closer than we expected under the water and suddenly popped up next to the pup, shooting out of the water to bite the plastic lid I was holding before she went back under. That was as good a sign as any that we needed to step back onto the boat. The only thing left to do was wait to see if the mother seal went back to the pup. We all waited on the Zephyrus and stayed as quiet as possible, watching the pup swim around the dinghy and to the side of the sailboat while the mom circled nearby.
The best place for a seal pup to be is with its mother in the wild, and while we brought a net and a crate over in case we needed to get the pup out of the water and take it to a wildlife rehabilitation center, we were all keeping our fingers crossed for the mom to return to the pup.
NOAA Permit #24359.
It was a tense 30 minutes as all four of us sat in near silence, alerting each other quietly when we saw the mom or pup re-emerge over the side. As Deisy and I started to talk about getting the net and crate ready, there was a large splash of water by the dinghy. We rushed to the back of the boat and saw a frothy trail of water. Looking closer, we saw the mother harbor seal swimming away, with the pup splashing on her back! Seeing this special moment after the quiet anticipation and anxiety of the last hour had all of us clapping and cheering. After we were done celebrating, we went back to shore with Kori, triumphant and sweaty. Once on land, we were immediately approached by another marina staff member about a different harbor seal pup that had been seen the previous day on the shore. There’s never a dull day in the summer with the MMSN!
This stranding response had such a happy ending because the reporting party, Jeff and Sue, did everything right: keeping their distance from the harbor seals and calling the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
As pupping season in the Olympic Peninsula begins, the best thing to do if you see a seal or any marine mammal that appears stranded is to:
- Keep your distance: 100 yards is recommended
- Take photos from a distance! Photos are very helpful for stranding networks to help them assess a stranded marine mammal
- Note information like location (GPS coordinates are super helpful), condition of the animal if known, approximate size, visible tags, signs of human interaction, or any other observations
- Report to the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. The network can be reached at 1-866-767-6114 from anywhere on the West Coast. NOAA operators will connect you to the closest Marine Mammal Stranding Network partner.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for helping us safely share the shore with marine mammals!
More resources:
West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network