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seals, are they dangerous?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 90 days.
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This may be slightly off topic unless you plan to dive the Antarctic, but the current issue of National Georgaphic has an article on Leopard Seals. They have a very bad reputation. One chased a member of the 1914 Shackelford expedition until it was shot and killed, and one killed a snorkeling biologist in 2003 by grabbing her and dragging her down.

The photographer and author was scared to death when he first went in, and then a 12-foot female approached and offered what he considered to be a token of affection, a baby penguin. He saw her over several days, and she chased away other seals, stole their penguins, and offered them to him.

I think I'll still pass on diving with them. I wouldn't want to count on finding that one individual seal.

The article has some great photos of the seals, including ones of them chasing penguins and ripping them apart.
 
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Andrew,
I pride myself on seal impressions, usually while trying to get back into the boat finning furiously to leap clear over the gunwhale landing feet first fins and all on the deck
 
Hi,

here in our area there are some seals that live in caves, some friends told me that caves are a good opportunity to shot a lot of fish.

The seals here are very big, I suppose they will not like it when I enter their home without an invitation.:naughty

My personal view: I want to leave them alone, furthermore they are under protection, not many of them are left.

Greeetings
 
Bill McIntyre said:
The photographer and author was scared to death when he first went in, and then a 12-foot female approached and offered what he considered to be a token of affection, a baby penguin. He saw her over several days, and she chased away other seals, stole their penguins, and offered them to him.

Maybe she was in loove and wanted something else rofl rofl
 
As far as Cornish seals go,surfing wise,you get the occaisional 'freindly' seal that gets a little frisky and bites your leash and nibbles your toes when your surfing but spearing wise...ive come across one that looked like he was having a kip...so i ditched my gun and swam back to check him out and we came nose to nose over a ledge and im not sure who took off fastest....other than that,they always seem to take a respectful distance from me and i've never felt threatened......but,they're big buggers and i guess you'll always get one that fancys himself....i know that that Terry Nuttkins kept one in his bath years back that took his fingers off.......you'd have to be british to know of Terry though.
 
The Common Seals around sunny Portland don't seem that bothered and will come over to have a look. I think that when they blow bubbles its an aggressive gesture and they would like you to go away and stop stealing their fish! And they do steal the odd fish from your float..
 
badlander said:
i know that that Terry Nuttkins kept one in his bath years back that took his fingers off.......you'd have to be british to know of Terry though.

I thought that it was an otter that filled it's belly with finger! I could be wrong. My childhood seems a distant memory and seals do have very big teeth:)

Try making a croaking noise next time you see a seal. Never had any trouble with seals either surfing or spearing. When spearing i ditch my gun and dive down and "croak" at them. They come so close but never aggresively. A guy i know just had a tickling feeling on his hand the other day and looked down to see a seal rubbing his head against his hand.

I guess it depends on the area and how much contact seals have with humans. Don't approach them and expect them to nip you. Then if they do you expected it, job done!!

Gutshot
 
A seal cow took off a womans nose and took a bite out of her leg in Haroldsbaai last year after the woman tried to roll the seal back into the water. A mate of mine also got his arm bitten two weeks ago after he tried to 'help' a seal back into the water. Point is dont force something onto em and you should be fine I think...
 
Nothing says get the f*&k out of my house like a bit of a nibble to the shins :crutch rofl .
Seriously though it sounds like the toxic brain damage thing could be an explanation or maybe it has raybies ( can they get raybies? )... In both those cases maybe somebody should put it out of its misery
 
Don’t shoot the seals. They are tuff as nails and don’t die easily.
Many years ago (back when it was legal to shoot seals) a friend wanted to see what sea lion tasted like so he went to his local islands tie one end of his float line to his boats railing the other to the spear guns shooting line. Half an hour later a seal approached the boat and he shot it. The flopper deployed under the skin and seal bolted tearing the railing of the boat. Fortunately for him, the seal haldout on a near by rock and died. My friend got the bent boat railing back and filled the cooler with seal meat. What did it taste like? He said sea lion was greasy and not worth the effort. Harbor seals are better table fair.
 
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