PORT ANGELES — A juvenile, female elephant seal that had settled on an Ediz Hook boat launch to molt was moved Tuesday but returned early Wednesday.
The Northwest Stranded Animal Network asked researchers with the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary to move the seal because the opening day of salmon season Wednesday was expected to attract people to her chosen refuge.
In collaboration with state Fish and Wildlife agents, researchers moved the seal to a beach inside the Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles Tuesday morning, said Ed Bowlby, sanctuary research coordinator.
“As of early this morning, the animal had returned,” Bowlby said Wednesday.
The seal returned to the area of the boat ramp but settled on a small beach slightly to the east of it, he said.
Barricades were erected to keep people and their pets from disturbing the animal.
“We are monitoring it, hoping it will stay off to the side or relocate itself,” Bowlby said.
Researchers are concerned about the stubborn seal, both because of the increased activity around the boat ramp and the upcoming Independence Day celebration on Saturday, which always draws crowds with fireworks to the sand spit.
“There’s a lot of boat traffic and a holiday weekend coming up, so we wanted to move it before today,” Bowlby said Wednesday.
Seals climb onto beaches once a year to molt. Even though the process of shedding their fur is natural, it’s stressful for the animals, Bowlby said.
People should keep their distance and not try to feed the seal or give it water, he said. Pets also should be kept away, he added.
Noise or too close attention could cause the seal, already uncomfortable, to feel threatened.
If it feels threatened, it could react.
“If people approach too closely, it could attack,” Bowlby said. “It will defend itself.”
Bowlby said he has no idea why the seal seems to prefer the boat ramp to a more private beach inside the Coast Guard station.
“It has a mind of its own,” he said.
