squid_vicious

A harbor seal ended our dive yesterday. We were trying to catch fish in order to tag them and this seal would not leave us alone. He started with the normal friendly fin chewing sort of behavior but eventually became a bit scary. He bit my arm and wouldn't let go. He didn't break my skin but he kept biting me. After he eventually let go of my arm, he bit my head and then my leg. I tried to push him away, gently at first, but it didn't work. On our accent, I was kicking him in the face as hard as I could with my fins and whacking him with a fishing pole. He didn't seem to care. He bit the other two divers a couple of times but I was his favorite by far.

It was very strange. On the one hand, he was super cute and cuddly looking but on the other he's a 200 pound wild animal capable of inflicting a really nasty wound. Fortunately, the only damage he caused were a few small bite marks on my wetsuit.