The Sun would be much more appealing to me if it replaced its page 3 girls with stories like this one, which reads in its entirety
Alistair Forrest, 40, was out paddling when the grey seal began circling him in the water.
Then it climbed on board, partially submerging the vessel near the Forth Road Bridge.
Alistair, of Armadale, West Lothian, said: “I couldn’t believe it.
“I was apprehensive at first as it was so heavy.
“But after that I was elated to be up so close.”
Even better is the video:
There’s a special elation we feel—or at least I feel—when an animal like this overcomes its fear of humans and communes with us, even if for just a short time.
And what a lovely little pinniped!
h/t: Michael
Not long ago something similar to this happened and I think it was caused by a shark that was after the seal. Causes the seal to make new friends.
Yes, I was just about to make the same point. I wonder if there was something larger and nastier circling below Mr Forrest’s kayak that he was blissfully unaware of. A shark large enough to frighten a grey seal would be unusual in the Firth of Forth, but not impossible.
I remember seeing that. The seal hopped onto a boat to get away from the shark.
This guy seemed more curious than afraid.
Let’s hope curiosity doesn’t kill the pinniped.
That’s awesome.
So cute
I am jealous: she touched the wee nose!
Reminded me of my cat, the way it looked around and was so curious. A swimming cat. Grand. Love the balance of the seal. Glad to see a animal man has not made terrified of him. Hugs
Very cute but I’ve always been nervous of seals since a stranded baby on a beach tried to take my arm off. The RSPCA were very cautious when they approached it but it made me realise that wild animals aren’t pets.
It’s a Selkie!
IIRC, the Sun discontinued the Page 3 feature a few years ago.
Extremely cool!
I had no idea kayaks were so flexible; I was surprised to see the crafts’ noses moving up and down in the waves.
I think that there is quite a lot of distortion of the image caused by post-processing to stabilize the video – you can see this at about 1:10 when the seal’s body is growing and shrinking in an odd way that isn’t caused by breathing.
The second photo looks very humanoid to me.
Had a similar experience in Monterey Bay in Ca a few years ago, while kayaking out to see the baby otters, with a very young (fortunately) sea lion.
My first trip to the Galapagos, I toured on a small converted fishing boat that had very claustrophobic cabins, so I slept outside on a platform at the stern. (Probably not too bright: had I rolled off at night, no one would have known.) Anyway, we towed a rowboat behind us, and on more than one occasion a sea lion jumped into it, perhaps 10 feet from me, and rode along for a while.
Cute!
What a nice experience for this couple, and with such a cute fellow creature.
Such an adorable species! (Not H. sapiens, altho the two in this vid aren’t bad… 😉 )
And people say being lazy is a bad thing!