Is This a Record? How Far Up the Eel Has a Seal Swum?

Not far from the Scotia Bridge, a seal gives watchers a skeptical look. [Photo by Alyza Elway]

In the interest of science, LoCO has to know … How far up the Eel do seals swim?

Today, around 10:30 a.m., near the foot of Davis Street in Rio Dell, Alyza Elway, a resident there, said she photographed a seal exploring unusually far up the Eel River.

“My husband took my son out fishing today,” she explained. “He called us [about the seal] so we walked down to see.”  While they were at the river, she said, the seal continued to splash about leisurely for some time. “It would swim back up and float down,” she said. Even after she left, her husband and son who stayed there saw the seal for quite awhile.  “It did it the whole time they were down there [and] they were down there for a few hours.”

She says as far as they know this is the first time this has happened. “My husband grew up here in Rio Dell and he said he’d never seen one here before,” she explained.

Seals near Fortuna aren’t that rare but, to our knowledge, a pinniped near Rio Dell is something unprecedented. Anyone with longer memories than ours have a different recollection?

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GEOFFREY DAVIS
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GEOFFREY DAVIS
9 years ago

ON THE SEAL/ EEL SUBJECT… SEALS HAVE BEEN SEEN ALL THE WAY UP TO THE KEEKAWAKA [ THE SOUND A FROG MAKES IN WHYLACKEY ] FALLS ON THE MAIN STEM OF THE EEL….. NOT OTTERS ….. SEALS….. ASK ANY OLD FISHERFOGGIE …. BUT ANOTHER OLE BOY SPOTTED AN ARMADILLO NEAR KETTENPOM , AND A GRIZZLEY, IN HOAGLIN…. AND A BLACKPANTHER…. IN OAKLAND. SOOOO WHAADYAKNOWBOUT THAT!!

Fisherfoggie
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Fisherfoggie
9 years ago
Reply to  GEOFFREY DAVIS

I have seen young sea lions under the railroad bridge at Dyerville. That was in the 70s when there were more fish in the river. I’ve seen a lot of unusual things in my 50+ years in Humboldt where wildlife is concerned. The most startling incident was when I saw a Roadrunner on a flat about two miles up the north fork of the Eel. He ran like hell and then pulled up his feet and did a glide very close to the ground for a very long ways. Didn’t bother telling many folks because it got the same reaction as claiming to have seen a flying saucer