After causing a stir, a stressed-out elephant seal leaves Gonzales Beach
Now that she’s departed Gonzales Beach for parts unknown, a young elephant seal is getting credit for teaching Victorians how to be better hosts.
The juvenile seal caused a stir after she arrived in April to shed her outer fur and skin as a part of a natural moulting process.
Volunteers tried to protect her by setting up a safe zone with caution tape.
But the seal’s popularity quickly got out of hand and too many people started popping by the beach for viewing — sometimes throwing things or allowing their pets to bother the stressed-out animal.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans eventually issued a public warning, reminding people that they could face penalties for harassing a marine mammal. The City of Victoria took to social media to urge people to keep their dogs on leashes and stay outside the caution tape.
Kerri Ward, one of the Gonzales-area volunteers keeping an eye on the seal, said everything ended well, with the seal leaving on its own terms and swimming off into the ocean.
But the episode was a good opportunity to prepare for the next time, she said.
“This will happen again. This is a natural occurrence and every few years the elephant seals come onto Gonzales Beach and it’s going to become more of an issue, because that beach becomes more and more popular each year.
“So it was a good learning curve for everybody and the seal made it through, which was the great thing — lots of lessons learned from it all.”
In the end, Ward said the seal’s moulting process ran its course and she simply returned to the sea one morning.
“For a couple of weeks, she just wasn’t feeling good and you could tell in the last few days she was definitely feeling better because she was going in and out of the water.”
The volunteers took the barriers down on when it was clear the seal would not be coming back. They’ll stay down — at least until the next visitor arrives.
In the future, Ward said, if people see a large marine mammal on the beach, or observe one being harassed, they should call the Fisheries and Oceans Canada report line at 1-800-4654336.
If you see a large marine mammal in distress, call the Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue at 604-258-SEAL (7325).