Seal Island (Duikereiland) Houtbay

It is the stink that hits you first. Depending on the wind direction, it hits you like a brick wall. Then the sound, the bulls biting the younger ones, the gulls making their usual sound, the splashing in the water, the thousands of prawn shells drifting beside the boat. Then the visual confirmation; thousands of seals sitting on a random rock (island) in the middle of the ocean.

Are we looking at them, or are they looking at us?

My mom usually says something she heard from a friend:

Hoe meer hulle blink hoe meer hulle stink.

Roughly translated, it simply means the more their fur/skin blinks the more they stink.

The water is too cold for sharks to swim here,, the seal colony is thus massive. You can see fish swimming around the kelp in the close by the kelp forest. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of prawns shells drift past you. Their main food source is one of the more expensive items on the shelf in our local shop. They eat for free, we need to pay.

They bask in the sunlight all day long, being lazy, and expending resources only when they need to. What a life that must be. He is the king of his castle (or rock). No one can steal it; he is bigger than the rest.

The boat stops; the stink burns your nose, and the wind direction does not change, but the amazing show is playing in front of you.

They play in the water by the boat, as if they are mermaids tempting you to jump in, Come swim with they whisper. The sun burning your skin adds fuel to the fire; you want to jump in!

Like a mermaid, they swim next to the boat. Luckily their faces are not the prettiest; you will need to have a couple of beers to mistake it for a human face! But I can see how easily you can mistake it for something, someone, if you look in the dark.

A baby sits close by his or her mom. The sun bakes hot on all of us, but the cool water is just at its feet. Many other youthful seals play in the water. The bigger bulls lay lazily in the sun. They do not like to swim it seems.

Apparently, you can dive and swim between the seals. They are not going to bite you; otherwise, the option would not have been there. But I am not a big fan of putting myself in potential danger like that.

Many birds also occupy the random rock just offshore. It is amazing to witness the symbiotic relationship between all these animals.

The birds obviously feed on the food that the seals do not eat or could not eat. Many of the prawn and lobster shells cannot be eaten by the seals. Gulls being opportunistic, they will eat the prawn and lobster shells. The seals might also leave a little meat in the shells for the birds to feast on.

But for the birdwatcher, like myself, this is an awesome opportunity to birdwatch. Many of them hide between the many seals, probably in search of some food scraps.

But they are there, waiting for you to take some stunning photographs!

Sadly, not all are rainbows. Many of the baby seals might fall into the water and they will wash up on the beach. They will never be able to return to the seal colony. There is a seal sanctuary just around the corner that takes in these "fallen seals"; but these seals will be fed by the locals who teach them various tricks. They become like "dogs" to them.

These seals, like the one above, become too "fat" to catch their own fish. They also rely on these handlers to feed them. Why do the hard work of fishing when you can just get fed the whole day?

Morals aside, it is pretty interesting to see these amazing animals close up and so "friendly". And one can wonder if they would have returned to the seal colony after they grew up in a different area. Luckily their numbers are pretty big, I think, so a couple who are friendly to humans is probably not too bad.

When the boat turns around and the stink goes away, we felt delighted. Fresh air never smelled so good. But it was sad (for a brief moment) to say goodbye to these awesome animals. Some of them momentarily swam behind the boat, but most of them stayed behind.

We arrived back to dry land only to be greeted by the tame seals.

Here are some last photographs of these magnificent animals:

I really hope you enjoyed this virtual journey to seal island in Houtbay with me! Unfortunately, I cannot share the wonderful smell with you, but I am sure you can imagine it. All of the photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300 and 300mm Tamron lens. The musings are also my own unless hyperlinked. Happy travels, stay well.