[Photo courtesy of Stephen Wood, Digital Underwater Photography Specialty Instructor. Contact us to set up an underwater photography class with Stephen!]
I had an amazing experience today. I went for a dive spontaneously with a friend since I had a free sunny afternoon. We descended into the kelp forest offshore in Monterey, and had a beautiful dive seeing all kinds of invertebrates and fish. Everything was showing that spring has sprung, with tiny juvenile fish, baby kelp plants, and reproductive coralline algae everywhere we looked. We saw a harbor seal who was crouching on the bottom with his face buried under a kelp plant. Two eyes just poked out gazing up at us. He did a playful flip in a circle and returned to his hidden position, like a puppy trying to get attention.
Our amazing experience began when we were coming up to about 15’ depth and a harbor seal (possibly the same one) came up to me and quickly poked my arm with a flipper, then swam away. But he hadn’t really gone. He came right back and began pawing my hand. I kept my fist closed to make certain I didn't lose any fingers, but he was very careful and incredibly gentle. He lightly scratched my gloved hand and my arm, sniffing my facemask. He then swam out of sight again and I thought that was all. But after another few meters he was back to checking out my arm, and touching his nose to my forehead. This continued for a good 5 minutes. He eventually worked his way to my head, pawing every inch so I felt like I was getting a head massage through my neoprene hood. I was careful to guard my gear, but he was so gentle, it wasn’t in danger. He encircled my arm with his front flippers and gave it a seal hug. My buddy and I finally had to continue towards the beach, at which point our friend grabbed my fins and swam along with us.
As we came to the surface, he poked his eyes up above the water, then below, and I followed with mine to match him. Above, below, and the last time when his head came above the water, his face was just a foot away from mine, dark brown eyes gazing at me. He watched us with his little grey head popping above the water as we exited and made our way up the beach. I’m not sure what his motivation was but I was touched. It’s such a gift to be able to have an interaction like this with a wild animal. I have talked to many other divers who have had similarly amazing experiences underwater. It’s so incredible to be able to temporarily visit a completely different world.
I am in love with diving. To me traveling briefly under an ocean or bay is just as good as traveling to another country across the world.
[submitted by Tara, Seven Seas Scuba Divemaster]
