It doesn't get much slipperier than this.
In an adorable Youtube video uploaded this week, seal pups struggle to get onto a floating surfboard by using their flippers to slide across the slick surface. For a few of them, it doesn't go so well.
According to Washington's local B-TownBlog, Burien resident Ethan Janson captured the footage of the seal pups with his GoPro camera, which he mounted to a surfboard he once used for windsurfing. Janson hooked the surfboard to a buoy and recorded the seal pups near Three Tree Point, on the Puget Sound. Editing the 30 minutes of footage down into a 3.75-minute clip, he chose the best moments of the seal pups sliding about.
A disclaimer before the video jokingly states: "no vaseline was applied." The video's description also explains that morning rain made the surfboard too slick for some of the seals to get a good grip.
The seal "slip 'n slide" is just the latest video Janson has captured on the Puget Sound. Using GoPro cameras, the professional photographer has chronicled hours of footage of seals who have hopped onto his surfboard. Though the videos inspired Janson to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary, the project did not meet its funding goal.
According to Seal Sitters, a non-profit organization based in Seattle, fewer seal pups were spotted around West Seattle in 2012, and 15 were found dead. With food supplies reportedly at normal levels, there is no apparent explanation for the increase in seal pup deaths in the area.
Further south, in San Diego, a beach camera recently captured a pair of women harassing harbor seals. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, people are not allowed to touch or interfere with marine mammals, including seals.
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