Meet my friend Spot!

Spot, of whom I often gush, is a harbor seal I met in October of 2000 in Whaler's Cove at the Point Lobos National Marine Reserve. I had just finned through a dense kelp forest at the mouth of Whaler's Cove towards open ocean and dropped down to a large pinnacle looming up from the sea floor a hundred feet below. Along the side of the pinnacle, amongst brilliantly colored soft corals, sea anemones, crabs, red algae, starfish, small shrimp and a number of multi-hued fish, I spied a pair of nudibranchs - (brightly colored, shell-less snails.)

Dropping down beside the nudibranchs, I readied my video camera to record the scene, angling the twin video lights toward my intended subjects and floating just a foot from the face of the pinnacle. Suddenly, "someone" grabbed one of my fins and started towing me backwards through the water, away from my perfectly composed nudibranch shot! I looked down between my fins to meet the face that would become my favorite dive buddy - a playful harbor seal.

As the dive progressed, he dissuaded me from aiming my camera at, or paying attention to, anything other than him. He would sideswipe, head-butt and drag me by the fins to get my attention, all in a valiant effort to get me to play. The single most memorable moment came when this 150 lb.+ seal came barreling up between my legs and squoze between my arms - my hands were hanging on dearly to my video camera housing. He grasped the sides of my face with his flippers and stared at me eye-to-eye. At this point I tried mightily not to laugh and blow bubbles, ("aggressive behavior" in marine-bio-speak: "bad manners" in mine.) I quickly got lost in this incredible, friendly but wild creature's stare, and that moment changed my perception of him. Rather than a "wild animal," this harbor seal became "Spot."

Spot would teach me several new games - all variations on "let's tow Spot" - his favorite of which was holding on with both flippers to one of my fins while I kicked slowly, dragging Spot through the water like a waving flag. Another, (actually the first, and easiest for me to learn,) was simply to allow Spot to hang on to my shoulder while I propelled us along with my fins.

Our dive together lasted just over half an hour, and it would be two years to the month before we had another encounter, (and together discovered an ancient whaling ship's anchor!) but my memory of that first meeting remains indelibly connected to the comment of another diver that day who asked, "So, do you see this relationship going anywhere?"

I hope you'll enjoy these frame grabs from the video of Spot on our first encounter. This final shot graces mine, and quite a number of friend's computer desktops. While it wasn't taken while he was holding my head in his flippers, this was the perspective I had when we were face to face. You are welcome to share Spot's story and pictures, and anyone with questions or comments on Spot, diving, or even details of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, is welcome to get in touch with me.

Cheers!

Chris ~