Amazing Encounter
On Saturday November 30th, at Ansell Pt. in Vancouver, BC, Canada, three freedivers had the privilege of experiencing an amazing marine mammal interaction. They interacted with a wild female harbor seal (phoca vitulina), for over 2 hours, in her natural home environment. During this encounter, they witnessed behaviour almost certainly never witnessed before. This is the story of their adventure.
We share this story in the hope that it might raise new questions as to the behavior of harbor seals and seal-human interactions. Freediver interactions with seals are by all accounts markedly different from interactions with scuba divers, given the much greater mobility of freedivers (flexible wetsuits, no air tanks and other equipment), our diving habits (like seals we need to breathe on the surface), and our ability to dive to a significant range of depths, 0-90m.
* * * *
Ansell Point is a shore diving site which is the training ground for most of Western Canada's freedivers. There are at least three harbor seals that frequent Ansell Point. The area is sheltered, and offers deep water close to shore. Since both scuba divers and freedivers often dive at Ansell Point, the harbor seals are used to divers, and will sometimes interact with them. One female harbor seal is particularly playful. Although she has never been named, we call her Shylo. Shylo has been seen at Ansell Point for at least a year. For some reason, she is more interested in humans than the other seals. Many divers have reported brief but fun interactions with Shylo over the last year at Ansell.
Three Canadian freedivers, Peter Scott, Tyler Zetterstrom and Eric Fattah (the author), had previously interacted with Shylo. They arrived at Ansell Point on Saturday November 30th, for a routine training session. Tyler arrived first, and briefly joined some other freedivers who were finishing their training session. They had reported seeing the female seal, and she seemed in a playful mood. However, their interaction had been brief. While the earlier divers left, Peter and I set up the descent guideline for deep freedives, and then we joined Tyler in the water. The water temperature showed 8C on the surface, and much less down deep. The visibility was good, about 8-10m, and the water was a dark emerald green. We entered the water around 2pm, so the sun was already low on the horizon. We expected a routine training session, and we had no idea that we would experience an amazing sea mammal interaction.
We swam the float out into deep water. We dropped the descent line to 50 metres, and started our training session. One of the first experiments I conducted involved testing the compressibility of different masks. Then we began doing some training dives for around 45 minutes, until Peter told me he was getting a bit cold, and that his feet were frozen. He headed back in to warm up his feet in a bucket of warm water. As he began the 100m trip back to shore, a seal popped up about 15m away from the descent line. Tyler and I immediately dove, hoping to see the seal underwater. I did see it, and it was a female, and it looked like the female seal that we often encountered. Soon, her behaviour confirmed that she was indeed Shylo, the famous seal of Ansell Point.
At first, as always, when she meets you underwater, she swims in circles around you, keeping a careful eye on you, and never approaching closer than about 5 metres. We have learned from our interactions at local dive sites that harbor seals will never allow you to get below them. Perhaps they have a blind spot under their belly. Nevertheless, they will always try to stay below you. Normally, if you swim towards them, or scare them, they will immediately sprint down into the abyss.
Shylo was no different. Tyler and I were a bit too eager in the beginning. On one dive, I dove, and encountered her around 4 metres down. I got too close, so she immediately began sprinting down, near the descent line. Normally, we’ve seen seals swim with a side-by-side (left/right) undulation. This time, however, watching Shylo hurry downwards, I could have sworn she was using a front-back (up/down) dolphin stroke. I would see this several more times before the day was over.
She quickly dove out of sight. I followed as fast as possible, and, as I expected, she had parked herself around 12m. When she saw me appear, again she bolted for the abyss, again she went out of sight, and again I eventually caught up. This continued until I started running out of air, and so I headed back up.
As I reached the surface to breathe, I told Tyler about my dive, and soon Shylo popped up nearby. She watched us carefully. We dove a few more times, and with each dive, Shylo became less and less shy. We resisted the urge to approach her, and instead we simply dove, and waited. More often than not, she would come to us. When we would await, motionless, she would creep closer and closer, and then she would start investigating our fins. I was wearing a monofin, Tyler was using bifins, and Peter, who had now rejoined us, wasn't wearing any fins.
Over the dives that followed, Shylo became really comfortable with the three of us, so much so that she would play with us even at the surface. However, she still seemed more comfortable playing with us under the water. On a typical dive, I would dive down, and wait around 8m. Looking up, I would see the silhouette of Tyler, Peter, and Shylo, as she played with their fins as they floated on the surface. It seemed that she would suddenly realize I was beneath her, and she would immediately dive down to meet me. I was unsure if this was a safety measure or she just preferred to play underwater.
Peter became annoyed with his lack of propulsion, so he swam back to shore to get his monofin. Shylo followed him the whole way back! She remained only 4 metres behind him as he swam to shore. Once he got out, she swam back out to the float where Tyler and I awaited. Soon Peter rejoined us with his monofin.
On one occasion, I was at 8m, sinking slowly, while Shylo played with my monofin. She would smell it, rub her nose over it, hammer it with her claws, scratch it, bang it, rub her belly on it, all in great curiosity. She once bit the monofin rail. Then, she noticed that I was sinking without moving. She seemed a bit confused as to why I was sinking and she was not. At first, she kicked a few times to catch up to me. Then, in one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen, Shylo decided that it was inefficient for her to swim after me, so she simply grabbed hold of my monofin and held on to it as I sank! I continued sinking down into the darkness, pulling Shylo with me. It was an eerie experience. The sun was so low that it was quite dark underwater, and Shylo's whitish-beige spotted body glowed like a ghost against the dark emerald background. She drifted like a spirit in the void, playing with me, as I too, floated in emptiness. I was having the time of my life; I could only wonder how she felt. It was quite a strain for me to bend my head to watch her play, since diving masks do not offer great downwards fields of vision.
We had never had so much time so close to a seal. On every dive, the entire time would be spent observing every minute detail of this beautiful seal. We had the chance to inspect her every feature, from her eyes and nose, to her claws and feet.
On separate occasions, Peter and I found Shylo examining the backs of our monofins. We couldn't see her, but we could feel her little claws pounding, scratching and banging the back side of our fin.
...Continued...
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
On Saturday November 30th, at Ansell Pt. in Vancouver, BC, Canada, three freedivers had the privilege of experiencing an amazing marine mammal interaction. They interacted with a wild female harbor seal (phoca vitulina), for over 2 hours, in her natural home environment. During this encounter, they witnessed behaviour almost certainly never witnessed before. This is the story of their adventure.
We share this story in the hope that it might raise new questions as to the behavior of harbor seals and seal-human interactions. Freediver interactions with seals are by all accounts markedly different from interactions with scuba divers, given the much greater mobility of freedivers (flexible wetsuits, no air tanks and other equipment), our diving habits (like seals we need to breathe on the surface), and our ability to dive to a significant range of depths, 0-90m.
* * * *
Ansell Point is a shore diving site which is the training ground for most of Western Canada's freedivers. There are at least three harbor seals that frequent Ansell Point. The area is sheltered, and offers deep water close to shore. Since both scuba divers and freedivers often dive at Ansell Point, the harbor seals are used to divers, and will sometimes interact with them. One female harbor seal is particularly playful. Although she has never been named, we call her Shylo. Shylo has been seen at Ansell Point for at least a year. For some reason, she is more interested in humans than the other seals. Many divers have reported brief but fun interactions with Shylo over the last year at Ansell.
Three Canadian freedivers, Peter Scott, Tyler Zetterstrom and Eric Fattah (the author), had previously interacted with Shylo. They arrived at Ansell Point on Saturday November 30th, for a routine training session. Tyler arrived first, and briefly joined some other freedivers who were finishing their training session. They had reported seeing the female seal, and she seemed in a playful mood. However, their interaction had been brief. While the earlier divers left, Peter and I set up the descent guideline for deep freedives, and then we joined Tyler in the water. The water temperature showed 8C on the surface, and much less down deep. The visibility was good, about 8-10m, and the water was a dark emerald green. We entered the water around 2pm, so the sun was already low on the horizon. We expected a routine training session, and we had no idea that we would experience an amazing sea mammal interaction.
We swam the float out into deep water. We dropped the descent line to 50 metres, and started our training session. One of the first experiments I conducted involved testing the compressibility of different masks. Then we began doing some training dives for around 45 minutes, until Peter told me he was getting a bit cold, and that his feet were frozen. He headed back in to warm up his feet in a bucket of warm water. As he began the 100m trip back to shore, a seal popped up about 15m away from the descent line. Tyler and I immediately dove, hoping to see the seal underwater. I did see it, and it was a female, and it looked like the female seal that we often encountered. Soon, her behaviour confirmed that she was indeed Shylo, the famous seal of Ansell Point.
At first, as always, when she meets you underwater, she swims in circles around you, keeping a careful eye on you, and never approaching closer than about 5 metres. We have learned from our interactions at local dive sites that harbor seals will never allow you to get below them. Perhaps they have a blind spot under their belly. Nevertheless, they will always try to stay below you. Normally, if you swim towards them, or scare them, they will immediately sprint down into the abyss.
Shylo was no different. Tyler and I were a bit too eager in the beginning. On one dive, I dove, and encountered her around 4 metres down. I got too close, so she immediately began sprinting down, near the descent line. Normally, we’ve seen seals swim with a side-by-side (left/right) undulation. This time, however, watching Shylo hurry downwards, I could have sworn she was using a front-back (up/down) dolphin stroke. I would see this several more times before the day was over.
She quickly dove out of sight. I followed as fast as possible, and, as I expected, she had parked herself around 12m. When she saw me appear, again she bolted for the abyss, again she went out of sight, and again I eventually caught up. This continued until I started running out of air, and so I headed back up.
As I reached the surface to breathe, I told Tyler about my dive, and soon Shylo popped up nearby. She watched us carefully. We dove a few more times, and with each dive, Shylo became less and less shy. We resisted the urge to approach her, and instead we simply dove, and waited. More often than not, she would come to us. When we would await, motionless, she would creep closer and closer, and then she would start investigating our fins. I was wearing a monofin, Tyler was using bifins, and Peter, who had now rejoined us, wasn't wearing any fins.
Over the dives that followed, Shylo became really comfortable with the three of us, so much so that she would play with us even at the surface. However, she still seemed more comfortable playing with us under the water. On a typical dive, I would dive down, and wait around 8m. Looking up, I would see the silhouette of Tyler, Peter, and Shylo, as she played with their fins as they floated on the surface. It seemed that she would suddenly realize I was beneath her, and she would immediately dive down to meet me. I was unsure if this was a safety measure or she just preferred to play underwater.
Peter became annoyed with his lack of propulsion, so he swam back to shore to get his monofin. Shylo followed him the whole way back! She remained only 4 metres behind him as he swam to shore. Once he got out, she swam back out to the float where Tyler and I awaited. Soon Peter rejoined us with his monofin.
On one occasion, I was at 8m, sinking slowly, while Shylo played with my monofin. She would smell it, rub her nose over it, hammer it with her claws, scratch it, bang it, rub her belly on it, all in great curiosity. She once bit the monofin rail. Then, she noticed that I was sinking without moving. She seemed a bit confused as to why I was sinking and she was not. At first, she kicked a few times to catch up to me. Then, in one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen, Shylo decided that it was inefficient for her to swim after me, so she simply grabbed hold of my monofin and held on to it as I sank! I continued sinking down into the darkness, pulling Shylo with me. It was an eerie experience. The sun was so low that it was quite dark underwater, and Shylo's whitish-beige spotted body glowed like a ghost against the dark emerald background. She drifted like a spirit in the void, playing with me, as I too, floated in emptiness. I was having the time of my life; I could only wonder how she felt. It was quite a strain for me to bend my head to watch her play, since diving masks do not offer great downwards fields of vision.
We had never had so much time so close to a seal. On every dive, the entire time would be spent observing every minute detail of this beautiful seal. We had the chance to inspect her every feature, from her eyes and nose, to her claws and feet.
On separate occasions, Peter and I found Shylo examining the backs of our monofins. We couldn't see her, but we could feel her little claws pounding, scratching and banging the back side of our fin.
...Continued...
Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
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