From: SealAlertSA
Subject: Bones - Is this not special or what ?
Date: August 17, 2006
Bones - will he ever stop
saying thanks
Eight years ago shortly after acquiring
our 60ft - 60 ton Norwegian fishing vessel to convert into a
live-a-abroad for my wife Nelda and I, and our planned cruise
around the world. We came across the terrible plight of these Cape
fur seals. They changed forever, our path in life. 'Sweety' became
our first rescued seal, but not long after in mid August another
seal arrived.
I first spotted him coming down the harbour
channel in August 1999, in rolling flipper over flipper swim
patterns, that has now become a distinctive sign of a seal very
weak. Without any encouragement whatsoever, this pathetic, of a
once amazing robust and healthy living seal - hauled his broken and
tired body abroad our raft tied alongside our boat, and lay down to
die.
I feed, nurtured and encouraged him to live
- and after many, many months - he did. Once a skeleton of skin and
bones, hence his name - 'Bones' blossomed into a thoroughbred of a
bull seal, shining pitch black in colour - eyes full of life once
again. After a time during his rehabilitation he
moved permanently off the raft, and took upon station
alongside, doing repeated head over hind flipper circles,
constantly - in the dirty polluted harbour water. Each time his
head swung around, he would try and attract my attention and make
eye to eye contact - through the slime, oil and surface muck. I was
initially very concerned with this unusual swim pattern - as I was
afraid he might drive himself completely mad.
After some months, 'Bones' simply vanished into
the deep blue yonder. My second only seal rescued had disappeared
for good.
The following August 'Bones' was back - and how I
distinguished him from all the others of hundreds of seals since
rescued, was his repeated head over flipper turns desperate to
attract my attention once again. 'Bones' would stay a few
weeks, which involved at least twice a day making sure "we
connected" before heading out the harbour in his daily
routine.
No matter where I moved within the harbour, and I have
been forced to re-locate to several different locations around the
harbour - 'Bones' would somehow find me each mid-August.
Stay for a few short weeks and then disappear. Where
or how far I will never know, but what I did know somewhere deep in
the back of 'Bones' mind he would always be thinking of me -
somewhere out there.
It is now the eighth year since 'Bones' rescue - and
sure enough, on my way to feed 'Mumkin' this morning I spotted
this seal, alongside a jetty I seldom use - doing those distinctive
head over flipper turns - and once again for the 8th year in a row
we connected as two species should.
With the average lifespan of a seal in the wild of
just thirteen years, 'Bones' must be getting quite old. He is one
of over five thousand reasons why I have never left this 'Seal
Hating' fishing harbour even for a day.
I will always wonder when 'Bones' will ever stop
saying thanks - and I hope he never does.
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seals
Seal Alert-SA