Sep 17 2008
La Jolla Harbor Seals: A Short Story
I know I may have mentioned before that one of my favorite places to take a relaxing walk and observe wildlife in San Diego is La Jolla. In taking a walk here, I feel a lot of love in the air. Not only from human, but also from that of animals. Not only love between man and woman, but also love between family, such as mom and baby, or mom, dad and baby. The joy in hiking, or walking, or just simply relaxing out of the doors is that being able to experience the wonders of nature, part of our experiential learning. For me, there is a deep meditative experience in being outside with nature, giving a deep inner joy no money nor material can match.
In La Jolla, one of my favorite stops is the Casa Beach or the Children’s Pool Beach. This small beach is a rich natural setting of coastal wildlife. It has harbor seals on the shore, whether relaxing or playing on the sand or in the water. Aside from harbor seals, there are pelicans, gulls, pigeons, squirrels, wealth of tidepool and on your lucky day, dolphins and gray whales off shore. To learn more about La Jolla Seals, please do visit the site: http://www.lajollaseals.com/ .
Despite that the harbor seals are in La Jolla all year round, but for me, the best time to view the harbor seals is during the pupping season, which is February to April. You will see a lot of mom and pup pairs. During the cooler months, from November- June, a lot of the seals are on the beach lying down or playing around. During the warmer months, which is July- October, most of the seals are in the water. I love the seals, and I wish for them to be continually protected here in the cove.
Not that I am running out of places to share where to hike in San Diego, but I had been wanting all along to share with you the joys of photographing seals, and the imagined stories that pop in my mind sometimes.
Harbor Seals: A Short Story
SCENE 1
MOM: “You can do it, baby,” encouraging her pup to swim.
Pup: ” I am trying, mom.”
Mom: “Oh, I am proud of you, you did very good in the water today.” Then, kissed her pup on the forehead.
SCENE 2
Mom: “Oh, how I love this bubble bath.”
Mom: “Wait, where is my precious baby seal?”
Pup: “Mom, I am just here….Look…I can roll. Yehey!”
Mom: “Okay, too much fun in the water for now….time to enjoy the sand….Let us go get some rest.”
Pup: “Okay, mom.”
Mom: “Slowly,baby…..sand is fun, if you’ll take it slow.”
Pup: “Okay, mom. I love you mom.”
Mom: “Oh, I love you too, baby. Now, time for us to get some sleep. Okay?”
Pup: “Okay mom,” and they both dozed off to sleep.
Scene 3:
Seal 1: “hmmmp! That lady spends so much time taking pictures of the mom and pup! How can she missed my cute passing stare?”
Seal 1, again: ” Hey, you! You lady taking pictures.”
Lady: “Me?”
Seal 1: “Yes you! I am here so easy to photograph, how come you keep on missing me? Is it because I am not a pup and not a mom either?”
Lady: “Oh, sorry I missed you. I was entertained by the mom and pup. They’re sleeping now. But you are a cutie, your group are. Can I take a picture of you with your friends?”
Seal 1: “Sure! I’ll ask them to pose for you. But they’re all camera shy. Let me see, what I can do.”
Seal tried talking to his buddies to have fun with the camera,
but, unfortunately, he could not convince them all to come together for a group picture. He then signalled the lady,
Seal 1: “Hey lady, better take us a group picture now, before they will all be gone again playing around.”
Lady: “Okay. 1….2….3….Click”
Lady: “Thank you so much for being so kind to pose for the camera and also for encouraging your friends to join you.”
Seal 1: “No problem lady, my pleasure. Hey, before you leave, look around a little bit more, you may have missed seeing some other precious moments because you were so engrossed with the mom and pup from the water to the sand until they dozed off to sleep. You know there are a lot of mom and pup pairs here, right?”
Lady: “Yes, one of the reasons why I love coming back here during these months of pupping season.”
Seal 1: ” Look towards the breaker, there is a mom that feeds her pup. It is a very special moment, is it not?”
Lady: “Oh yes, oh, so thank you seal! Can I take picture of them too?”
Seal 1: “Lady, you have been taking pictures, go ahead, just make sure it comes out good.”
Lady: “Thank you!” , then, click her camera to shoot the mom feeding her pup.
Seal 1: “I hope you like our natural gift to you today, the priceless joy of being with us. I hope you will help us keep this place our natural habitat. Please visit http://www.lajollaseals.com/ so you will learn how you may help in protecting the shores and the ocean that we share. So, we can keep this a happy place.”
Lady: ” Sure, thanks really for allowing us to share with you this wondrous place. This place has been yours all along, and we owe it to you to continue to keep this a peaceful, and happy place.”
Seal 1: ” You’re welcome lady. By the way, when you leave this beach, take a walk a little bit more so you can take pictures of the wildflowers on the hills and cliffs, they’re blooming pretty. I love looking at those carpeting colors from afar. Then, can you please smell the flowers for me? You just have too many simple things in life to enjoy.”
Lady: “Oh, thanks for the tip. I will. And yes, I love the Joys of Simple Life. ”
Indeed, the lady was pleased with the harbor seal tip to walk a little bit more, the cliff was covered with nice yellow flowers.
Ahh, just like what the seal told her, the lady took her time to pause and enjoy the smell of flowers. Slowing down allows us to capture special moments which otherwise we may simply pass upon. Enjoying life each day, capturing each special moment, helps in taking care of our health and also gives us awareness on how we can help in taking care of our beautiful world.
I love seals..the closest I got to watching these creatures in the wild was when I took a trip to Kangaroo Island, Australia many years ago..:)
You seem to enjoy doing this post. It is entertaining and I like the dialog that you had made with the pictures.
It made me smile!
I’m thinking that you’re the “lady” taking pictures and talking to the seals.
Hahaha! That’s an impressively creative story!
What a wonderful job you did, with both the pictures, and the stories that go with them. I love how you gave them a personality, and poof they came to life. What a lovely place, for children to learn about wildlife, and nature in general.
That’s super! What a great story to go with those pictures!
thanks a lot everyone.
@ Gem, you’re correct about what you were thinking
Warning: I’m about to get political!
Seals are cute and great. However they should NOT be at that beach. That section is a man made beach. It was built by the funds of San Diegans who wanted a safe place for their children to swim. And now it is one of the MOST POLUTED beaches in America. It is no longer a safe place to swim. Before MAN MADE this beach, the seals never came around.
I don’t think we should necessarily kick the seals out. But I do think we need to keep that beach clean and allow our children to swim there.
Oh, and also that whole law about humans not being allowed to physically touch a seal is absolutely ridiculous. Even if a seals life is in danger, a person can go to jail for HELPING SAVE IT’S LIFE!!! Maybe it should be illegal to HARM a seal, but it shouldn’t be illegal to SAVE a seal.
Phew! Sorry - you really do have some beautiful pictures here thogh!
Hi Frigga, it is okay, I understand we all have different opinions and perspectives. The beach is not necessarily man-made, it is part entirely of the ocean. Only that as an open beach before, it was subject to dangerous ocean rip currents, thus a breakwater wall was made by men. From what I understand, the funds was donated by Ellen Scripps for the intention of providing children a safe place to swim, so that breakwater wall was indeed intended for safer swimming purposes minus the danger of strong surf and rip currents. However, the seals came in and made that part of the ocean their rookery, and because of fear of people harassing seals and also of seal fecal contamination, the beach was closed.
” The breakwater wall was built upon a large rock shelf known since 1887 as Seal Rock and Seal Rock Point. First hand accounts by native La Jollan’s indicate the presence of harbor seals in the area before and after construction of the wall.”- http://www.lajollaseals.com/controversy.html
Only that because of how the beach was named that we forget we are just tenants of the ocean, it is not naturally ours to invade and throw away natural coastal habitat, but naturally ours to seek renewal. I am happy and content that I have miles and miles of coastline to enjoy in San Diego and the seals only took a fraction of one mile, and in my opinion, this small stretch should continue to serve as natural habitat of the seals, be set aside for the primary use by harbor seals, secondary by human as long as the seals are not disturbed in any way and respected in their habitat subject to strict interpretation of Marine Mammal Protection Act.
wow! i love the pictures and the story is very creative. i wonder how the lady looks like while she took the pictures. hehe…
i would imagine it to be like a children’s story book with dialogues. it would also help the children be conscious of taking care of their environment at a young age. i guess… you would be a good author.
OMG! The seals are sooo cute. I loved your captions as well :o) Have a wonderful weekend!
How adorable! It must be great to see seals out like that
ohohoh! they are so cute! It makes me so happy looking at those little faces! SOOOO CUTE!!!!
~Kelly
http://www.30somethingandsearching.today.com/
Hahahaha… love that story my friend. you are very creative. love the story line too… very candid. keep it up.
Incredible pictures!
Laura
http://whatshotontv.today.com/
That beach looks wonderful! I bet it is fun to hike there. And the seals are adorable. What great pictures!
Hi Betchai!
I just love those photos! Another great job of yours. And ofcourse, I enjoyed the short stories you created, very entertaining! You’re very creative indeed!
Btw, thank you so much for your very nice comment about our little boy….You’re much appreciated.
Debbie
Gorgeous. That’s all I can say. Well, okay there’s more… I LOVE this post… there’s something very personal around the images that grabs you, and the way in which you’ve documented the experience is truly fantastic!
Miss Beth,
This is my favorite among all your posts in all the blogs that you maintain….
The seals are just gorgeous! And the storyline is very creative!
I envy you with this opportunity of sharing time with these wonderful creatures…