Alki Beach residents watch out for baby seals during pupping season

It started with Spud. Then came Silky, and Neptune. And Leopard.

By now, a group of Alki neighbors don't let a summer day pass without looking out for the welfare of baby seal pups they find hauled out on the beach while their mothers are out fishing.

The neighbors officially formed Seal Sitters in 2007, after a bumper crop of baby seals resulted in seal pups on Alki beach nearly every day during the seal pupping season, which gets under way now and continues through September.

"We think of it as creating a crib on the beach," said Robin Lindsey of Alki, who cruises the beach for the young animals most every day, beginning at dawn. "We want this to be a safe place for them to be."

The Seal Sitters have created a dispatch line for the public to call if a baby seal is spotted on a West Seattle beach (206-905-7325). Volunteers will sit with the pup, staking out an area with yellow tape to keep people 100 yards from the animal, as recommended by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"The number two predator after dogs is cellphones," said Brenda Peterson, who founded the group. The pinniped paparazzi, as she calls them, phone their friends and descend on the vulnerable animals, coming in close to get better shots.

She has her horror stories.

There are the people who lie down next to seal pups to pose for a picture. Then there's the woman who picked up a baby seal, thinking it was in trouble, took it home, put it in the bathtub, filled it with regular tap water and tossed in some clams.

The saltwater mammal, which had been getting milk from its mother, died.

While some people deliberately bother the animals, even throwing, kicking or poking them with sticks, most people make their mistakes out of ignorance, Peterson said.

The thing to do with a baby seal or any marine mammal found on the beach is leave it alone, keep your distance and if you have a dog with you — illegal on most Seattle beaches anyway — keep it leashed and far away.

The animal is merely napping while its mother is away fishing, and if it is moved, the mother may not be able to find it again. The animal also is too young to know to be afraid, and won't know to protect itself from a dog or other predator.

The Seal Sitters' cause is growing, with 68 people taking a training session from the National Marine Fisheries Service last month, Peterson said.

Neighbor Etienne Reche-Ley, age 8, has signed on, dispatching her school class to pick up trash on the beach to make sure seals don't swallow any. She has five plush seals she sleeps with every night. And she draws seal pictures in the sand with a child's eye for delight: the seals are smiling. Her reason is simple: "I like seals, because they are cute."

Peterson said she sees the seals as part of a cross-species community. "I think of this as day care, the mothers have to trust the kindness of strangers while they are out at work," Peterson said. "And after all, it's their beach, too."

Susan Roedell asked her husband to build a seal life raft attached to a buoy just off the beach from their house after watching a baby seal exhaust itself crawling up on a floating log, and falling off over and over. Now she gets the treat of seeing seals on the raft nearly every day, Roedell said.

Lindsey also has found the seals do as much for her as she does for them. Through her work with the seals, she has made new friends and reconnected with nature.

"It's changed my life," Lindsey said. "We say we help the seals, but really, they help us."