My favorite place for paddle boarding is Semiahmoo, Blaine, WA. Every summer I paddle board there every day.This is also a favorite place for Harbor seals to call home. Hundreds of them like to swim and lay down on the pier by the bay. When I paddle board, I often meet several seals swimming and following my paddle board. Sometimes they make eye contact and make funny noises. This is inspired me to create the painting “ Living in Paradise “. In the background is the Semiahmoo hotel.
Harbor seals float on the surface with only the upper part of their head visible, showing the big brown eyes, nostrils flaring to take a breath, and sensitive “whiskers” (vibrissae) on either side of their snout. External ears (pinnae) are conspicuously lacking in this family, often called “earless seals.” This distinguishes them from the fur seals and sea lions that have obvious, if small, external ears.
As you approach, the seal will either dive or will orient its body vertically and rise slightly higher in the water, the better to see you. With closer approach, it disappears below the surface. Harbor Seals and their relatives have highly modified hind legs, basically a pair of webbed fins that can be sculled back and forth to drive the seal through the water at surprising speeds. Perhaps not too surprising, as they have to be fast to chase down fish, their primary prey.
Seals are well adapted to live in cold temperate waters, as their skin includes an insulating layer of dense blubber; fat does keep you warm. Their senses for detecting each other, potential prey and predators, are well honed, with big eyes that see well underwater and an acute sense of smell that serves them when out of the water (olfaction does no good underwater when it has to be accomplished through the nostrils!).
