Sea Lion Boards Family Boat and Won't Leave
Description
by Joey Wahler
August 11, 2008
FERNDALE, Wash. -- When Lynnea Flarry and family were picnicking recently off the coast of northwest Washington, they never expected an intruder to board their sail boat while it was docked -- especially a sea lion.
Sure enough, as the picnic was wrapping up at Clark Island Park, a sea lion climbed aboard their 31-foot boat, known as Graciela.
What’s more, the animal refused to leave.
“I thought it was quite humorous,” Flarry told Pet Pulse. “We all did. We were just chuckling, and we just thought that was just the funniest thing that a sea lion would go on our boat and be sunning himself.”
Flarry’s 16-year-old granddaughter, Annika Wolters, got within about a foot of the animal -- but he barely even flinched, much less took off.
“It was just amazing, especially because it didn’t even seem to really care that we were there,” Wolters said. “Kind of like, ‘This is my boat now.’”
Wolters’ 10-year-old cousin tried to touch the sea lion, drawing a hiss from the creature -- but still he stayed put.
“The sea lion just closed his mouth, looked away, and kind of sunbathed again,” Wolters said. “He really didn’t care that we were there as long as we left him alone.”
When Flarry’s son, Grant Wolters, gently nudged the sea lion repeatedly with a boat hook, even that failed to get it to leave.
Surely starting the boat’s engine would startle the animal enough to leave, right?
“That did nothing,” Flarry said. “You could just see him going, ‘Ah,’ to the sun, you know?” Flarry said.
After Flarry’s husband, Jerry, nudged the sea lion again with the boat hook -- for 15 or 20 minutes -- the animal finally departed.
Annika Wolters was then snapping photos of the creature in the water, not realizing the boat’s ladder had not been pulled up.
“And yup, you guessed it -- the ladder was still down, and the sea lion just climbed up the ladder like a human would be,” Flarry said. “We’d use hands and feet, but he just used his flippers to come right up the boat ladder again.”
The family was able to evict the sea lion once more, but not until first naming it Sammy Andre Wolters-Clark-Flarry.
Since the incident, scientists have suggested the sea lion boarded the boat to avoid the poisoning effects of a toxin found in algae. Flarry, however, disagrees.
“He was not aggressive,” she said. “He demonstrated absolutely no erratic behavior.”
Indeed, one scientist claimed to be familiar with this particular sea lion, and said it was a female. Flarry vehemently disputes that notion.
“Well it was not a female, because females don’t have that appendage between their hind legs,” she said. “So I don’t think that scientist is as smart as that scientist thinks she is,” she said, laughing.
The sea lion, Flarry reasons, must have found the boat surface more to his liking than the rocks on a small island nearby, where her the family had noticed sea lions earlier sunbathing earlier in the day.
“He just enjoyed the comfort of our boat,” Flarry said.
Flarry’s grandchildren, especially the youngest, 5-year-old Jacob, wanted to take the sea lion home.
“He was willing to start showering in his parents’ shower and forgo the bathtub, so the sea lion could live in his bathtub,” Flarry said.
At no time, Flarry says, was anyone scared of the creature.
“It was just a wonderful opportunity for us as a family to observe marine life up really close and personal,” she said. “That’s the upside for us.
“The downside for the sea lion is that humans have, I believe, probably encroached on their territory sufficiently, that in this case this animal had lost its fear of humans, and concern for humans.
“And that could certainly impair its safety.”
August 11, 2008
FERNDALE, Wash. -- When Lynnea Flarry and family were picnicking recently off the coast of northwest Washington, they never expected an intruder to board their sail boat while it was docked -- especially a sea lion.
Sure enough, as the picnic was wrapping up at Clark Island Park, a sea lion climbed aboard their 31-foot boat, known as Graciela.
What’s more, the animal refused to leave.
“I thought it was quite humorous,” Flarry told Pet Pulse. “We all did. We were just chuckling, and we just thought that was just the funniest thing that a sea lion would go on our boat and be sunning himself.”
Flarry’s 16-year-old granddaughter, Annika Wolters, got within about a foot of the animal -- but he barely even flinched, much less took off.
“It was just amazing, especially because it didn’t even seem to really care that we were there,” Wolters said. “Kind of like, ‘This is my boat now.’”
Wolters’ 10-year-old cousin tried to touch the sea lion, drawing a hiss from the creature -- but still he stayed put.
“The sea lion just closed his mouth, looked away, and kind of sunbathed again,” Wolters said. “He really didn’t care that we were there as long as we left him alone.”
When Flarry’s son, Grant Wolters, gently nudged the sea lion repeatedly with a boat hook, even that failed to get it to leave.
Surely starting the boat’s engine would startle the animal enough to leave, right?
“That did nothing,” Flarry said. “You could just see him going, ‘Ah,’ to the sun, you know?” Flarry said.
After Flarry’s husband, Jerry, nudged the sea lion again with the boat hook -- for 15 or 20 minutes -- the animal finally departed.
Annika Wolters was then snapping photos of the creature in the water, not realizing the boat’s ladder had not been pulled up.
“And yup, you guessed it -- the ladder was still down, and the sea lion just climbed up the ladder like a human would be,” Flarry said. “We’d use hands and feet, but he just used his flippers to come right up the boat ladder again.”
The family was able to evict the sea lion once more, but not until first naming it Sammy Andre Wolters-Clark-Flarry.
Since the incident, scientists have suggested the sea lion boarded the boat to avoid the poisoning effects of a toxin found in algae. Flarry, however, disagrees.
“He was not aggressive,” she said. “He demonstrated absolutely no erratic behavior.”
Indeed, one scientist claimed to be familiar with this particular sea lion, and said it was a female. Flarry vehemently disputes that notion.
“Well it was not a female, because females don’t have that appendage between their hind legs,” she said. “So I don’t think that scientist is as smart as that scientist thinks she is,” she said, laughing.
The sea lion, Flarry reasons, must have found the boat surface more to his liking than the rocks on a small island nearby, where her the family had noticed sea lions earlier sunbathing earlier in the day.
“He just enjoyed the comfort of our boat,” Flarry said.
Flarry’s grandchildren, especially the youngest, 5-year-old Jacob, wanted to take the sea lion home.
“He was willing to start showering in his parents’ shower and forgo the bathtub, so the sea lion could live in his bathtub,” Flarry said.
At no time, Flarry says, was anyone scared of the creature.
“It was just a wonderful opportunity for us as a family to observe marine life up really close and personal,” she said. “That’s the upside for us.
“The downside for the sea lion is that humans have, I believe, probably encroached on their territory sufficiently, that in this case this animal had lost its fear of humans, and concern for humans.
“And that could certainly impair its safety.”
