Herding a shoal of sand eels
A time to play
When it comes to those precious diverseal interactions , Sue ’ s advice is to try and imagine what it is like to be a seal , hostage to its instinct at a vulnerable time of life . “ They are hugely curious and anything in the water is there to be explored ,” she says . “ They are especially comfortable in white water ... perhaps they can feel it on their bodies and enjoy the sensation . Their innate understanding of how water moves is so much greater than we can imagine .”
I have always been fascinated – and grateful – that seals stop short of inflicting actual damage during play with humans . “ They are very good at reading body
language ,” Sue says . “ Their own play is most likely intended to prevent injury , so they do have boundaries of a sort . They can pick up on pheromones , so you will see juvenile females getting mildly frisky with male divers , and vice versa .”
“ They are generally not aggressive at all , but they are curious and try to understand things with their senses . Every seal whisker has 1,000 nerve endings , which makes them more sensitive than the palms of our hands . They will mouth objects to check the density of an object .”
There is concern among the scientific community that some pups may spend too much time interacting with humans . “ Seals have to rest and hunt and feed to put on weight , so you have to consider what is happening to a seal as a result of your interaction . Are you preventing that seal from looking after itself ?”
Sue says she isn ’ t seeking to blame or restrict divers , but wants to spread awareness that there ’ s a metabolic cost to everything a seal does . “ Our research has shown that seals can be interrupted from their rest every 14 minutes during peak season , by boats , kayaks , snorkellers and divers . I just want the diving community to be mindful of these issues when they are diving near seals .”
As with so many aspects of diving , the ethical choices are down to us . We divers have to decide when a seal ’ s behaviour is getting out of hand ; when it ’ s time to move on , or even leave the water . All we can do is take the information on board and try to achieve a better understanding of this remarkable , resilient animal . �
Playing with a feather
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