Close Encounters

Being on Island you are bound to bump into some marine creatures. We just never imagined that one of these creatures would be a little baby seal.

We were spending the day at Rathtrevor Provincial Park, which has an expanse of shallow waters, you can walk for a long stretch and still have the water only at your knees. The boys did not waste time and ran right into the water, only to bump right into a little seal. She was obviously looking for her mom, and kept following and nuzzling anything that radiated any heat, in these case, the beach goers. We certainly tried to get away, and tried ever harder to keep our hands off her. When she wasn't targeting our little group, she would fine someone else.

At the end of the day she got really tired and still had not change her direction to go into deeper waters in order to reunite with mom. As you can imagine, there were many opinions, admirers and advocates for this little seal. At the end of the day, she was picked up to be taken to a recovery center. This too, wasn't without controversy, but everybody managed to keep civil.

Other exciting creatures were also found and analysed. The boys began most mornings by taking advantage of the low tide and explored the many tide pools.

The idea was to move all of the crabs from one tide pool to the next, so later in the afternoon they would have a "crab free swimming area", since some of the boys were not to keen on sharing the same waters. In the process some fingers got a little pinched and Ethan even got bitten by a little garner snake. Not to worry, the next day they were back at it again.

These boys almost turned into marine creatures themselves, one more day at the beach and there would fins starting to grow on their backs along with webbed feet.