SAN DIEGO — When surfers are out in the water surfing it's not unusual to see dolphins and seals swimming around them. What is unusual is for a seal to hall out of the water up onto the surfboards and that is what is happening at Tourmaline Surf Park where a seal pup is hanging out with surfers on their surfboards.
Tourmaline Surf Park is a great place for surfing, especially for longboarding.
Shawn spoke with Ed Hartel, a photographer and drone pilot, who was flying at Tourmaline, a noted place for surfing, especially for longboarding, and noticed something unusual in the water.
"Four days ago, a baby seal pup was spotted, and I came down three days ago to see if he was still around," said Hartel.
That doesn't sound too unusual, but the next part is.
"Basically, he swims from board to board jumping on different surfers' boards. He'll sit there for five to 10 minutes and then paddle to another surfer's board and he does it all morning long," Hartel continued.
According to Hartel, there were eyewitness accounts of why the pup is now orphaned.
"Some of the surfers saw a Great White come into the point here and [it] ate the mom three to four days ago. Ever since then the baby's stuck there," said Hartel.
At this point, the seal shows no signs of distress.
"It seems healthy, seems to be happy. He just has this weird behavior where he wants to be around people and on their board," said Hartel.
One surfer was out this morning and saw the seal:
"This morning we had a little seal out there surfing with us. It was out there for half an hour.
Hartel told me that the city of San Diego and SeaWorld had been contacted.
"There's been some calls to Park and Rec to remove the carcass, as well as to SeaWorld. They sent teams out. The seal is healthy so they can't do anything with it," explained Hartel.
The reason for that is if the seal is not stranded on the beach and not injured, it needs to be left alone, which is also what surfers for the most part are doing.
"None of the surfers are touching him, they're very respectful, they're letting him do his thing. It's just quite odd it keeps jumping up on surfboards," said Hartel.
So, for now, it's a catch-22 for SeaWorld and they can't do anything for the pup. Ed along with the other surfers out there is hoping the seal learned how to fish and will survive on its own. And if you're out at Tourmaline surfing remember that seals are protected and you should never touch them.
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