Swimming With Wild Seals For 20 Years 🦭

i think one of the things that happens quite frequently which is is really quite magical is when um a seal uses its front flipper to grab hold of your hand i've given a squeeze to a front flipper before and then when a seal gives you a squeeze back in response to your squeeze and you know it's squeezing back in response to your squeeze time just just stops everything else the hustle bustle of life goes and and then you just sort of focused in that in that in that moment sometimes when a seal comes and looks up close in your mask and you can see its eyes looking at you and you're looking at it and there's that connection between you and a wild animal and literally it's this close from you that's you know that's a privilege but it really is something special so i've been diving with seals for over 20 years now i learned to dive when i was really small but it's really in the last 20 years that i've spent time diving off the northumberland coast with with seals [Music] [Music] they've actually taught me how to dive with them i know it sounds a little bit strange they'll read off very small movements of your body underwater that are picked up by their whiskers um and then they'll come in and explore that and that has allowed me to have access to to observing behavior that's never been seen before they seem to have the ability to tell the difference between what's me what's physically my flesh my scalp my body and what's equipment and this sometimes leads to some quite comical moments when they will do things such as peel off my rubber diving hood very very gently in actual fact they'll they'll peel it off or they'll i remember one one episode where it uh actually managed to get hold of the tightening strap on my mask and and pull off my mask yeah they seem to understand what what is my equipment and what's me [Music] a lot of people will think oh um you know you must dive with the same seals all the time and then they know you and that's why they behaved you know they're habituated to you and but the reality is i very rarely dive with the same seal i think you know having done it for 20 odd years i can count on my hat on my fingertips how many times i've dived with the same seal on a different day [Music] they are all really really individual and some of them will be very very nervous just like humans will be some of them will be shy some of them will be bold some of them will be um very very inquisitive and once they trust you and they can sense that you're not a threat to them then then they'll really sort of display their true behaviors to you so one thing that i have seen that the first time i saw was you know quite surprising really is there's an area where you've got like a sandy bottom and it's beautifully clear the light reflects really well off the sandy shell bottom and i've seen young especially youngsters and they'll do this thing where they slowly rotate and roll onto their back and then use the sun bed to rub themselves and a lot of scientists have had debates about why they do that but when you see that it's quite a fascinating thing to see they push themselves so hard into the seabed that they leave a furrow that they as if they've sort of dug out this area behind them i think at the end of the day the key thing really is is that the reason i dive with seals is because it's that connection with nature that time with wildlife i am a doctor um i work as a gp in in uh cocot medical group in amble in northumberland we are also a vaccination center for covid and i oversee that covert vaccination center and so the last year has been incredibly stressful we went through all of the trauma with nursing homes and care homes getting hit very badly with covert and sadly quite a few people dying and you know the last year has been a roller coaster ride for everybody i think and so i think everybody needs to find a way to de-stress and i i'm very lucky i'm privileged really to be in a position where you know i can go underwater and spend time with wildlife and i think anyone who spends time outside with nature especially near wildlife you know it's really really therapeutic time stops and i think people talk about things like mindfulness and mindfulness can be really really useful i'm not someone who's into hocus pocus stuff but mindfulness where you know rather than thinking ahead a lot or thinking back and that can sometimes lead to depression actually just trying to focus on right here right now certainly when you're under water and there's a wild animal connecting with you right in front of you holding your hand looking in your eyes then you're focused in that very second and and that is incredibly good for de-stressing and the number one reason really why i dive always at the top of my mind when i'm diving with seals or any wildlife is not to disturb them you know i'm really very keen that there's no nothing invasive happening i always am keen to ensure there's no disturbance of any kind any any interaction has to be 100 on their terms they have to come and find you no food no reward it would dramatically alter their behavior and could in actual fact be quite dangerous people will say oh it's just like having an underwater puppy an underwater labrador an average male weight of a labrador dog is about 34 kilograms the average weight of a female grey seal is about 155 kilograms and a male grey seal up to 230 250 kilograms so these are very very different to a puppy or or a domesticated dog and if you look genetically at them they're a lot more related to bears actually than dogs having said that i would trust any wild gray seal underwater more than any domesticated dog once you understand how they behave you know i would trust them for people wanting to actually experience what it's like to be in the water with seals you know there are safe places where you can do that without disturbing them um for example off the farn islands in northumberland there are boat operators people like um william shield billy shield boats that i tend to use and there are operators up there who will take out divers and and snorkelers to experience what it's like to be in the water around such a beautiful place where you're very likely to see at least a fleeting glimpse of the seal underwater you

Channel: UNILAD Adventure

Views: 1,176,957

Keywords: seals, diving with seals farne islands, diving with seals uk, scuba diving with seals uk, swimming with seals, ben burville seal diver, ben burville seals

Id: KCoeoSgWGMo

Length: 7min 36sec (456 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 09 2021