There's something in the harbour...

This evening we went to a yardsale at Reindeer Point, and then to the Northern Store to get some ice cream. Upon our return from the Northern, we saw something funny in the harbour, swimming. It wasn't a person- there's a huge wind and rain storm right now, so it would be crazy to go swimming. It kind of looked like a dog, but it kept diving below the surface. I thought maybe it was a drowning dog...

However, we did see a seal last summer while canoeing around Tuk island, so we knew that wasn't outside the realm of possibilities. Seals are not common to see around Tuk, so we were all a bit surprised to determine that the mystery creature was in fact a bearded seal. Bearded seals are fairly rare around Tuk, it was the first time that our friends had ever seen one.

The seal was in the harbour just across from our apartment, and we were able to drive along side it on the main street, and follow it all the way out to the Point over the course of about 1/2 an hour. Deon spent a lot of that time trying to get some good pictures- at one point the seal surfaced a few feet from the dock he was standing on. All the while, the kids followed along, throwing rocks at it, every time it poked its head up to check out its surroundings. (I'm not entirely sure why, but kids seem to throw rocks at animals here- so far I've seen them throw rocks at baby ravens, dogs, and now seals).

The number of kids dropped off as we reached the point, so the seal felt comfortable coming close to the shore again, and it spent a lot of time eyeing us up. Here are a few pictures Deon snapped of our cute harbour visitor: