Rare Sea Creature Appears on Seattle Woman's Dock

I thought this was interesting...I have never seen one before..

The ribbon seal, which Boveng identified as an adult male, "looked to be in really good shape," he said. "We don't have any way to rule out other possibilities, but I'd say it's almost certain that it swam there."

ahh..scientists....

A Seattle resident recently got a big surprise when she discovered a strange-looking furry visitor on her property. "She woke up and it was lying on her dock, hanging out and sleeping — just chilling," said Matthew Cleland, district supervisor in western Washington for the USDA's Wildlife Services, and the recipient of a photo of the bizarre intruder. "I thought, 'That's an interesting-looking creature,'" Cleland told OurAmazingPlanet. "I had no idea what it was." A quick glance through a book in his office soon revealed it was a ribbon seal, an Arctic species that spends most of its life at sea, swimming the frigid waters off Alaska and Russia.

news.yahoo.com...

Oh what a beautiful creature. I've never seen one before. TY for posting this.

Here is some info I found...it says that Russian seal hunters almost hunted them to extinction on the 1960s...very rare now.

SIZE: Average adult 5 ft (1.5 m), 150 lbs. At birth 3 ft (1 m), 25 lbs.

BODY: Medium size seal with long neck, large dark eyes. Fur has distinctive color pattern.

COLOR: All >1 yr old have light bands on dark background encircling the neck, each front flipper, and torso. Background darker on males than females. Pups born with lanugo (soft wooly hair), molt after 4 weeks to first-year coat of blue-gray back with light sides.

BEHAVIOR: Not wary when hauled out on ice. Run across ice (using alternating front legs, swinging hindquarters) rather than using caterpillar movement like most seals. Seldom seen in water. Surface with very little of head showing.

HABITAT: Ice-associated, rarely haul out on land. Southern edge of sea ice winter and spring. Probably pelagic summer and fall. seagrant.uaf.edu...

What a beautiful seal!

Never knew they existed, thanks badd!

reply to post by Destinyone


Your welcome..

pretty cool looking huh?

I have seen a lot of seals in my day..

but not one of these...

I must repeat the sentiments above, BEAUTIFUL creature! Then again, I have an unexplainable affinity for seals and have never heard of a ribbon seal. Appropriately named.

reply to post by berkeleygal


your are most welcome BG..

I love the ribbons of white on it's body...

this is a male..

I wonder what the female looks like....

Only the second on record to make it that far south. Interesting story!

I spent a few years in Cali in the NAVY and saw plenty of grey sea lions off of Pier 39 and such but never in my life have I ever seen a Ribbon Seal S n F for the enlightenment!

With the weather we've been having, the seal probably thought it was in the arctic!

What a lovely animal.
I hope it shows up again somewhere else around the sound. Preferably near Tacoma and on a day my daughter and I walk the beach.

Originally posted by baddmove
reply to post by Destinyone

 

Your welcome..

pretty cool looking huh?

I have seen a lot of seals in my day..

but not of these...

Had to find some more pictures...here's a few...

reply to post by Destinyone


nice find Destiny..

sad that they were almost hunted to extinction..

Beautiful none the less...

Wow,amazing.
Any news on those ringed seals that were found dying?

reply to post by kdog1982


This is what i could find Kdog...

sad story..

www.globalpost.com...

OH! It's soooooooooooooo beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing this! I now have a new animal to add to my collection of favorites!

Beautiful!

peace

That is beautiful! I have never seen one like that.
Nice find.

that thing just screams to its predators, "eat me"

Originally posted by wlord
that thing just screams to its predators, "eat me"

It is not a "thing", but a beautiful animal.

what a great looking seal like many i have never heard of this one before so thanks for sharing such a great story

Question is why was it found so far south of it's normal environment. Could be something is wrong with it or the melting ice caps are changing their behavior.

I agree. Looks yummy. I never had seal but if I was gonna munch seal blubber I'd want that on my skewer.

Originally posted by DanielET
Only the second on record to make it that far south. Interesting story!

It will be interesting to see if more appear over the next few weeks. It would be amazing to see seals and others begin evacuating the radiation contaminated areas and trying to adapt to different climates in safer areas.

The first thing I thought of was the Ringed Seals coming/washing ashore along the coast of Alaska with radiation poisoning from Fukushima. I'll have to check, but as I recall there were nearly 150 of them and about half of them were dead. Considering the fact they are still dumping massive amounts of radioactive water into the Pacific I would certainly expect to see more dead/dying ones. I'm curious how many we don't see dead/dying for every 1 that comes ashore, my hunch is that the minority come ashore and most that die are doing so at sea or washing out to sea.