On Sunday, the streets along Alki Beach were closed to motorized vehicles for a 5K run and, afterwards, people were dancing to live music, strolling along the boulevard and checking out the booths of educational groups and vendors. The festive party lasted until 5pm.

Seal Sitters’ volunteers staffed a booth at the event and launched our “Seal Ambassador” drive, asking local kids to take a pledge to protect our marine environment. Harrison and Annabelle (shown here), students at Schmitz Park Elementary School, are our very first Ambassadors. Thanks to both of them and the additional 33 kids who took the pledge on Sunday! If you’d like to be one of Spud’s Seal Ambassadors, email us here.

178 people stopped by the booth throughout the day, learning about seals and other marine mammals, NOAA’s Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and Seal Sitters’ Year of the Seal (YOS) educational outreach project and harbor seal mom and pup sculpture. Our very talented illustrator Lynn created life-size chalk sketches on the street of a gray whale and swimming seal mom and pup, which were a big hit with the public. A table was set up next to our booth, where children colored drawings Lynn created - drawings showing what does and doesn’t belong on the beach and in the water, part of our YOS project to show the devastating impact that trash and pollution have on marine life. Flipper hugs to our enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers for spending their day doing outreach and helping marine wildlife!

Tags: Seal Ambassador, Year of the Seal

Flipper hugs and a special thank you to all the volunteers and friends of Seal Sitters that donated to us through GiveBIG. We are very pleased to announce that we raised $2,998.50 on Wednesday.

These new donations will help greatly in our goal to finance the installation of the Georgia Gerber bronze sculpture of a mother seal and her pup - and to fund the educational components of the Year of the Seal project, including the unveiling ceremony and celebration event at Alki Beach on September 8th. We still have quite a ways to go to meet our financial needs for the project, but this is a fantastic start!

We will continue to seek additional funds throughout the year to meet our funding needs. Donations can always be made through the blog and website.

Thanks so much for making this sculpture dream become a reality! Find out more about our Year of the Seal educational outreach project.

Tags: Year of the Seal

A seal pup, estimated to be about 9 months old, gave Seal Sitters a pleasant surprise on Mother’s Day, coming ashore near Lincoln Park’s Colman Pool. The hotline suffered a bit of a technology glitch Sunday morning so our response was not quite as swift as usual. Flipper hugs to Sean who called in the report and stayed on site until our responder could arrive to establish a tape perimeter.

That began a long day for volunteers, watching over the pup, nicknamed Carnation, until dark. Walkers, runners and bicyclists had lots of questions - including one woman who was concerned the pup had a head wound. Our responder Lynn assured her that indeed it was the pup’s ear hole and not a wound, a common misconception by people who erroneously report dead harbor seals as shot in the head. In the photo here you can see that harbor seals (unlike sea lions) don’t have external ear flaps.

You can also see that Carnation has some unusually curly whiskers, known as vibrasse. These whiskers, filled with highly sensitive nerves, help seals locate food in the dark and in deep waters by picking up vibrations from moving prey. One recent scientific study reveals that seals may not only be able to detect fish up to 600 feet away using solely their whiskers, but also the size and shape of prey. Researcher Wolf Hanke says, “This strongly suggests that the seal can sense different species of fish. If the seal can avoid tracking fish that are too small or too big, this saves energy” (NY Times). Each highly sensitive whisker (seals have 40-50 on each side of their snout) has up to 1500 nerves at the base. The research shows that a harbor seal’s whiskers are as efficient at detecting fish as echolocating dolphins.

Thanks to all the volunteers who gave up their Mother’s Day to be an allomother (when a human or other animal provides maternal care for the young born by another) to Carnation!

Tags: Carnation

Mark your calendar and plan now to donate online through GiveBIG on Wednesday, May 15th.

Please support Seal Sitters through The Seattle Foundation's GiveBIG, a one-day, online charitable giving event inspiring people to give to nonprofit organizations in our region. Your donation will be partially matched by The Seattle Foundation. This is an easy way to make your donation dollars multiply.

YOU COULD WIN A GOLDEN TICKET!
If your donation is chosen by The Seattle Foundation in a random drawing of 10 lucky winners, you and Seal Sitters will further benefit. Seal Sitters will then receive an additional $1,000 donation and a round trip ticket courtesy of Alaska Airlines. And, as a Golden Ticket winner, you will receive a $100 gift card, courtesy of Starbucks!

IT'S EASY TO DONATE!
Click this link to participate in GiveBIG. PLEASE NOTE! The GiveBIG link is only active on May 15th!

On May 15th, this link will take you to the page for Associated Recreational Council which is our fiscal sponsor. Click on DONATE and then fill in your financial and personal information. In the "Comments" box you must type in Seal Sitters. Then we will be credited with your donation. This is extremely important! If you do not type in Seal Sitters, your donation will go to ARC's general funds and Seal Sitters will not receive your donation.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
Please also spread the word to your family, friends, and business contacts by sending this post to them, encouraging a donation to Seal Sitters on May 15th. Anyone can donate through this GiveBig program.

Seal Sitters MMSN receives no funding from NOAA, the State or City for the work we do. Funds are needed for our dedicated hotline, website hosting, stranding materials, educational outreach and gas reimbursement. Some funds may be used for our Year of the Seal project.

If you have any questions, please email JoDean Edelheit.

Tags: Year of the Seal

Seal Sitters responded this afternoon to a call about a dead harbor porpoise on private property near the Alki Lighthouse. The juvenile male, estimated to be between 2-3 years old, was an intact, fresh specimen and was taken for necropsy by Jessie Huggins of Cascadia Research. The animal was somewhat thin and had some lacerations on the tail. Thanks to Jessie for giving our responders an on-the-beach lesson today on harbor porpoise biology. This is only the third stranded harbor porpoise we have had in West Seattle since 2007.The necropsy will be performed by Cascadia’s John Calambokidis with his marine biology students at Evergreen State College. We will share the findings as we receive them.

Over the past few years, the harbor porpoise has been rebounding in South Puget Sound after experiencing a mysterious decline decades ago. As stocks increase, so do the number of deaths - many due to commercial fishing gear entanglements (especially gill nets) and emerging infectious diseases. The harbor porpoise that died off Alki last March had a severe lung infection caused by a highly contagious fungus. Biologists such as Calambokidis are working to increase research and get more accurate population estimates of these shy and elusive animals.

One of the smallest marine mammals, harbor porpoises reach lengths of 5-6 feet (with females larger than the males) and weigh an average of about 125 lbs. As the name suggests, they prefer shallow waters and frequent harbors, bays and estuaries. They have sleek, dark gray bodies with lighter undersides, blunt heads and live approximately 20 years.

If you see harbor porpoises (or other cetaceans) in South Puget Sound, please report the sighting to Cascadia Research @ 360-943-7325. If you find any dead marine mammal, call your local stranding network (click here for listings in Washington and Oregon). Marine mammals can carry zoonotic diseases (transmittable from animals to humans). Do not touch a dead animal and always keep dogs away. Thanks to waterfront residents Susan and her daughter Jessica who called the hotline and allowed us access to the beach through their property!

Tags: harbor porpoise

Seal Sitters’ Year of the Seal educational outreach project is moving forward at a good pace. The centerpiece of the project is a bronze sculpture to be installed at Alki Beach. Prominent Northwest artist Georgia Gerber has made tremendous progress on the full-scale piece. She is shown modeling the harbor seal mom and pup out of a special supple clay that does not harden, allowing her to work over an extended period of time. The sculpture will be cast in bronze at Georgia’s own Whidbey Island foundry.

The intent of the sculpture is to raise awareness about the health of our marine ecosystem. Harbor seals, who live year round in our waters, are a sentinel species for the Salish Sea. Dangerous toxins in Puget Sound are stored in the blubber of marine mammals such as seals and cetaceans. The sculpture will remind people not only to Share the Shore with wildlife, but to make conscious choices to help clean up our waterways. The sculpture will be in place during the height of harbor seal pupping season in West Seattle. Seal Sitters volunteers will have the opportunity to have this dialogue with literally thousands of people while protecting pups on our beaches.

Another exciting facet to the project is the educational outreach to elementary schools due to begin in May. Seal Sitters will be talking to young children about ways they can truly make a difference for the marine environment. A few of the simple ways kids (and all of us) can help? First of all, don’t litter. Litter on the ground miles away from Puget Sound can end up in it by way of wind, storm drains and streams. Pick up litter on the street and beach - a glass bottle lasts 1million years. A styrofoam cup, 500 years. Don’t use balloons or “sky” candle lanterns to celebrate a birthday. What goes up truly must come down, often into the water. Beautiful flying candle lanterns are simply ugly trash when they land. Even if the package says “biodegradable” that process takes many, many years. Tragically, balloons in the water are often mistaken for jellyfish and swallowed by marine mammals and sea turtles, causing suffocation. We’ll offer kids positive and empowering ways to help protect and preserve our marine life for generations to come. Learn more about marine pollution here.

Seal Sitters needs to fundraise thousands of dollars to supplement our Department of Neighborhoods grant for the sculpture phase of the project. These dollars will be used for site preparation, landscape materials and installation. The Year of the Seal sculpture will be dedicated at a celebration event on September 8th. Also highlighted at the event will be children’s essays and artworks inspired by the project, environmental groups with outreach tables, speakers and fun, interactive stuff for kids - more info to come. Please click here to make a donation.

A public meeting will be held on Monday, May 13th from 7-8pm at the Alki Bathhouse to present the project to the community. Please attend. We welcome your input!

Tags: Year of the Seal

An intrepid harbor seal pup kept volunteers on their toes, trying to anticipate when and where the active weaner would show up next on a crazy Wednesday.

The day began with a report of a pup at the small cove near Salty’s restaurant. Our responder quickly was on the scene and taped off a perimeter. Soon after, the pup returned to the water, but only briefly before popping ashore at the north end of Harbor Avenue. Along the way, she enjoyed a short stop at Don Armeni boat ramp - keeping our first responder scrambling. Nicknamed Kellogg (after the pop tarts), she returned to Elliott Bay when the tide forced her from the beach. Kellogg headed south and ended up back at the boat ramp (photo above) where boaters were very cooperative in efforts to help the thin pup get some rest. They launched quietly from the opposite ramp. Finally, the exhausted pup settled in for a lengthy snooze late into the night as volunteers watched over her in shifts. The boat ramp area can be quite busy at night with people and vehicles.

The pup was still on the beach at sunrise this morning, but returned to the water for breakfast around 6:30 am. Ever on the move, Kellogg came back to Don Armeni a bit later, left at 10 am and, thankfully, was sighted around noon on the protected beach at Jack Block Park - a much safer location. It was an exhausting and stressful two days for our responders. Thanks to the many volunteers for protecting this pup, obviously in need of time on shore to rest and warm up!

Tags: Kellogg