{"id":4635,"date":"2000-12-17T20:38:23","date_gmt":"2000-12-18T01:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4635"},"modified":"2010-03-02T20:45:37","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T01:45:37","slug":"harp-seal-watch-%e2%80%94-17-december-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=4635","title":{"rendered":"Harp Seal Watch \u00e2\u20ac\u201d 17 December 2000"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4637\" title=\"12-17-1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-1.jpg\" alt=\"12-17-1\" width=\"480\" height=\"364\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-1.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-1-300x227.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center\"><strong><em>Juvenile Harp Seal in Fox Island WMA Marsh<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">With yesterday evening\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s high tide, I returned to the harp seal stranded in the Fox Island marsh.\u00c2\u00a0 The tide had reached the mud bank were the seal was spotted Saturday morning.\u00c2\u00a0 I waded out to her locale to see if she had escaped with the tide and couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see her until I was within about ten feet.\u00c2\u00a0 She hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t moved, but remained in the same area, floating head down and under water with only the bump of her back exposed.\u00c2\u00a0 I was concerned that she might be immobilized by something or other, so I began to approach cautiously.<\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">Well, life is a challenge.\u00c2\u00a0 At maximum high tide she was floating in about 20 inches of water.\u00c2\u00a0 I know that because the low wading boots I had foolishly chosen for this trek were 18 inches high.\u00c2\u00a0 Yep, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right \u00e2\u20ac\u201d two inches below water level.\u00c2\u00a0 When I slogged to a spot right over her, she snapped to life, poked her head up, and began to plow through the flooded high marsh grass toward deeper water.\u00c2\u00a0 I walked with her until the icy tide reached my thighs, at which point I decided the better part of valor was to retreat while I could still feel my toes.\u00c2\u00a0 She didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make it all the way to the navigable creek, but she did maneuver to within a few feet of a nice channel. At the request of the Mammal Stranding Network, I returned Sunday morning to check the area at low tide to see if she had moved out.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, this young harp seal remains grounded in the same location as last night.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-2-423.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4638\" title=\"12-17-2 423\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-2-423.jpg\" alt=\"12-17-2 423\" width=\"423\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-2-423.jpg 423w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-2-423-211x300.jpg 211w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 423px) 100vw, 423px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">With head resting in a clump of high grass, she took little notice my approach, just following my movement with her eyes but not lifting her head.\u00c2\u00a0 Her right eye, which I thought might have been injured, seemed responsive today, although darker and seemingly larger than the left eye.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-3-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4639\" title=\"12-17-3 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-3-480.jpg\" alt=\"12-17-3 480\" width=\"480\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-3-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-3-480-300x215.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As I got closer, she panted in shallow breaths, something akin to weak, barely audible barks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-4.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4640\" title=\"12-17-4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-4.jpg\" alt=\"12-17-4\" width=\"480\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-4.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2000\/12\/12-17-4-300x193.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: justify\">She did lift her head slightly as I circled behind her and walked away.\u00c2\u00a0 The spot where she lies now is within a foot or two of a creek channel which floods regularly with normal high tides.\u00c2\u00a0 So, if she desires, there should be no trouble escaping from this section of the marsh when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready to leave.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll check on her again tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Juvenile Harp Seal in Fox Island WMA Marsh With yesterday evening\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s high tide, I returned to the harp seal stranded in the Fox Island marsh.\u00c2\u00a0 The tide had reached the mud bank were the seal was spotted Saturday morning.\u00c2\u00a0 I waded out to her locale to see if she had escaped with the tide and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[823],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4635"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4644,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4635\/revisions\/4644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}