Mike Donahue:

>Yesterday afternoon I was at the north end of the arboretum (actually
>the big grassy area that borders the lake, between 520 and the Lake Washington
>Blvd. onramp to 520) exercising my dog, and well, a harbor seal jumped out of
>the water.

>Once the dog had grabbed the stick, the seal would goose the dog, then
>make a couple of leaps out of the water from along side the dog as the dog
>swam back to shore.

I can't speak to seal occurrences in Lake Washington; they do enter
fresh water from time to time, especially during anadromous fish runs.
But I've never seen a harbor seal "jump" out of the water, unless it
was climbing up on a rock. And the reentry splash would be awesome!
This sort of playful behavior sounds more like river otter hijinks.
Any chance that you saw an otter, rather than a seal?

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
kraig at wln.com