A young male elephant seal that crawled into the Port Angeles Boat Haven parking lot Dec. 22 to molt was moved Monday to a beach on the U.S. Coast Guard base on Ediz Hook to finish the process.
“The Marine Mammal Stranding Network had received enough phone calls regarding possible harassment that the seal was moved to a private spot, hopefully to continue its molting,”‘ said Barbara Blackie, a research specialist with the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
The molting process takes about four weeks and the seal needs to be on land to do it, Blackie said.
“The Port was doing a great job of protecting it, but there’s always a risk,” she said.
“It would be a long four weeks for the animal.”