Released 2010-06-05

Harbor Seal, Phoca vitulina

Harbor seals are semi-social: they often gather in groups while sunning themselves on rocks or beaches, but they don't particularly care to be so close together that they touch. If one seal approaches too closely to another, various barks, snorts and growls will warn the intruder of their offense. These sounds are often accompanied by a waving or slapping motion of the fore flipper, not unlike the movements of a human slapping away the hand of another, and possibly a quick, open-mouthed thrust of the head toward the trespasser, who suddenly finds himself the recipient of a mouthful of teeth. In spite of this, harbor seals are almost always found at least in the vicinity of other harbor seals.

Thus the image of this solitary seal, alone on his rock, struck me. He appears to be looking around for his friends, as if they all played a joke on him by simultaneously disappearing while he was underwater for a moment.

This is a limited edition photograph with a total of 500 photos printed across all sizes, as noted