Kayaking with a seal on board

One of the most special forms of symbiosis is the Seal on the Kayak. Seals seem to be attracted by kayaks. They sometimes climb on the deck of a kayak and travel with you for a while.

Below a collection, the largest "Seal On Kayak" collection on the Internet. In most cases: click on the image to view source pages. Or click on the play-button to start the embedded YouTube videos.

New
 
Baby sea lion climbs on kayak of a diver, who comes up and encounters a nice surprise





 
Saguenay River, Quebec, Canada. Photo: Courtesy of kayak friends Pierre (starring on the left side) and Marie-Josée

 
Zeeland, the Netherlands, July 20, 2007 (Link is broken.)

In 2012, on Vlieland (the Netherlands), I met the guy who is depicted on the images above, Govert Plugge. He is an experienced sea kayak instructor and was the head of the Vlieland camp. Govert has several experiences with seals climbing on kayaks. Both young ones and mature ones do it. Once the kayak of a fellow kayakker tipped while a mature seal suddenly climbed on the afterdeck... He sent me the five beautiful photographs below:
       




Faroe Islands, Denmark, 2005

 
Abel Tasman, South Island, New Zealand, May 16, 2006


Isles of Scilly, UK, July 13, 2006

 
Seal interrupts kayaking class (video). Vancouver, October 2007

 
Wildlife encounters, from Clearwater Paddling


 
More from Clearwater Paddling


 
Los Angelos, Jul 2007, ... When he saw me he swam all around the kayak and eventually jumped on to the back, where he proceeded to eventually try to push me off with his chest...


 
Vancouver, Sep 2007, ... we captured a seal jumping onto our kayak unexpectedly. It sounds like my husband is getting attacked in this video, but he is fine...


 
Vancouver, Oct 2007, ... the day with the seal seems to be the one that sticks in everybody’s minds... (Link is broken.)



Seal Island - seal nibbling end of kayak, Paul Rostron. Link is broken.



   
Dartmouth, April 2008, ... the seal became more and more inquisitive. Firstly, the seal started to sniff our boats, trying to get at the toggles. Then deciding we were friendly, the young seal decided to get more friendly, eventually trying to get on to our kayaks... (Link is broken.)



New Sealand, August 2003, ... Saellskapssjuk ung sael soeker kontakt... The young seal jumped two times on the kayak



Nova Scotia, June 2008, adventures guide



Monterey, California, September 2008, by myself
This photograph shows a seal swimming between four rafted kayaks. The seal is not on the kayaks, speciality of this photograph is that I made it myself.
After creating this website, we made a kayak tour in Monterey Bay, where many harbour seals, sea lions and sea otters live. We saw all of these species.
This particular seal was curious and went into our direction. I saw it swimming underneath our four rafted kayaks. It then popped up between the kayaks. We expected and hoped that it would jump onto our decks but it didn't.
Imagine, creating a website like this, and then it nearly happens... I've seen seals more often, in the Waddensea, and also close to my kayak (about 10 meter), but not this close.
The day before another guide told us that seals jump on kayaks regularly. If you want this to happen, don't paddle, just stay on your place and let the seal approach you. Don't look at the seal directly, look from the corners of your eyes. Then the seal might jump onto your deck. However, it might be dangerous, seals are wild and unpredictable animals. Never scare them.
Also sea lions might jump onto your deck. You probably don't want this to happen, they are too heavy and too agressive. So keep on paddling if you pass them, don't stop paddling. I'm told that they don't jump onto a moving kayak.



Anacortes, WA, 1998... making friends with a harbor seal


 
Vancouver (actually this is the same video as in 2007, they uploaded a fragment again, as a commercial for Canadian tourism, also uploaded on youtube as being in "Mexico", and e.g. here)

 
Elkhorn Slough, CA, 2007; Not a seal but a sea otter. During a trip to Elkhorn Slough, California, a young sea otter noticed my kayak...

 
Anglesey, Wales, UK, 2005 The most popular collection, you've probably not seen anything like this before -- An 'ordinary' trip around Puffin Island took an unusual turn when 'Lucy' decided to come for a ride.


 
Abel Tasman coastline, New Zealand, 2007 Then as we rounded another corner we entered what I can only describe as fur seal eden. About two dozen pups were playing in and out of the water. When we got closer they started crowding around us, tugging on the miscellaneous straps dangling in the water and playfully biting our paddles. Then a few pups took a try at boarding our kayaks only to slip off. Finally, a pup managed to climb aboard...


     
Tasman Bay, New Zealand, June 1993. Han en Arie Kreuk. Soms heeft men op zee een verrassende ontmoeting... uiteindelijk wint de nieuwsgierigheid... alles wordt geinspecteerd. (Once in a while a surprising encounter on sea takes place... finally curiosity wins... Everything is inspected). By mail I got additional information: all these seals climbing on the kayak decks of Arie and Han Kreuk were young animals. It was winter and the weather was rainy.




Why do seals climb on board?


From the web: Where I live, this is generally a sign that a pod of orcas are nearby. We know when they are coming because all the seals and sea lions jump onto shore, docks, boats, etc.... However, they also do it in the Netherlands where no orca's are found.

Another page: The guide said sometimes they swim around and jump right up on your kayak so I was waiting around hoping he would, but he didn't get quite that close.

See also text at my photograph above. They do it regularly.
From Dutch Weblog (Link is broken.) (referring to the photograph above from the Netherlands, July 20 2007)
This morning I opened my mailbox and found some photographs which Maarten made during the NKB seakayaking week. In one of them the same seal is portraited as the one which climbed my deck. (Vanochtend heb ik mijn mail geopend en ontdekte een aantal foto’s die Maarten tijdens de NKB Zeekamp heeft geschoten. In bovenstaande is dezelfde zeehond afgebeeld die bij mij op het achterdek heeft geklommen.)

From Dutch Kayaking Club bulletin (Link is broken.) , also referring to same photograph above, story by Ruben:
Also met a curious small seal which wanted to play with my kayak. Incredible, but very nice and very true; a memory which will remain... It roared about 30 cm behind my skeg. I turned around in surprise... and tried to proceed... Almost hit the animal with my left blade... Then it pushed the cockpit at the right side... Finally it tried to climb the deck, behind the cockpit... It is an odd method to learn the low brace, but it worked quite well. (Ook nieuwsgierig zeehondje ontmoet die met mijn kajak wilde spelen (en op het dek probeerde te klimmen). Erg ongeloofwaardig, erg leuk en erg waar; een herinnering die bij zal blijven ... Zat er een 30 cm achter mijn kiel te briesen. Verbaasd omkijken .. Doorvaren ... Bijna met m'n linker peddel het beestje op zijn kop geslagen .. ... Rechts gaf hij mij een duwtje tegen de kuip ... ... Om vervolgens op mijn achterdek proberen te klimmen ... Vreemde lagesteun instructiemethode, maar hij werkt (zowel de instructie als de lage steun - zie foto))

If you find, or have, another image of a seal on a kayak, please mail to me the link or the photograph!