Made an unexpected friend last night!

DSC_0222 – Copy by Allan[/url], on Flickr

Spent about an hour playing with this fella, he was following me around, rolling under the kayak, popping his head onto the deck, had a nibble of my paddle (it didn’t taste good). All within 20 yards of shore in Southampton Water!

DSC_0232 by Allan[/url], on Flickr

DSC_0217 by Allan[/url], on Flickr

Certainly not every day you get to see such an amazing creature so close up in the wild. Felt sorry to leave him at the end of the day, but honoured to have made his acquaintance!

DSC_0256 by Allan[/url], on Flickr

Excellent work!

I have to say the solent is the last place i’d expect a seal to pop up

Looks like a Labrador

Cool pictures! That looks brilliant! 😀

Cool, used to bump into a seal every time I surfed Abereiddy scared the heck out of you first time as you could feel something around your feet and it would give the leash a yank. Very big close up but was never aggressive just curious and playful.

Very cool 🙂

Rather nicer than the huge ugly jelly fish on Hamble spit a few weeks ago

Cool, but have you seen this?

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Bloody seals are the bane of any anglers day, they scare all the fish away and even steal them from your line as you wind in a fish! I had a seal one night grab a decent cod I was hauling in on the cliffs near Aberdeen and pop his head out the water with it in his mouth as if to taunt me! I pulled hard and got the fish, albeit with a few teeth marks 🙂

that would put me right off my fish and chips.

there used to be a grumpy old seal at the harbour in newquay. spooks you right out.

Posts like this need a “Like” button!

On my last training dive a seal decided to join us, swam alongside and round, watched while we did the mask clearing and dropped breathing equipment exercises, then joined in for a swim. At one point it swam toward group of divers and one reached out to stroke it, it came back upside down so he could rub it’s belly.

Great pics!

Pigface » Cool, used to bump into a seal every time I surfed Abereiddy scared the heck out of you first time as you could feel something around your feet and it would give the leash a yank. Very big close up but was never aggressive just curious and playful.

I think I had encounters with that one too. He used to swim around into the blue lagoon sometimes.

I had a collision with a seal whilst surfing at Whitesands early one morning too. Had just taken off on a wave and felt a thump from underneath, came flying off the board and when I surfaced looked back to see a huge bull seal diving back under the next wave in the set. He seemed OK thankfully which was more than could be said for my board which had a 8 inch crescent shaped ding in the rail right through to the foam. Paddled in and patched it up with duct tape and wax and then went back out and he joined me on another couple of waves.

that would put me right off my fish and chips.

Well played sah!

I have to say the solent is the last place i’d expect a seal to pop up

I was kayaking by the container bay near the bridge between Southampton and Totton and had a similar experience.

Very inquisitive and playful. Bigger than I imagined and when one bit into my oar it dragged my kayak along quite easily.

Nice photos