Eric, when I first saw the seal jump (I think the term is "porpoise") out
of the water, I couldn't quite believe that it was a seal, and that it
must've been an otter. But I stuck around and watched it for an hour, at
about 30 feet--it was definately a seal!

On Wed, 2 Apr 1997 kraig at wln.com wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
>