Washington and Oregon Coast: Seal is Famous Again, More Strange Beach Finds

Published 01/19/2019 at 7:39 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast) – The Oregon coast and the Washington coast provided plenty of wonders in the last two days, with a bevy of different finds made by the Seaside Aquarium. A seal that went extremely viral on social media last week is famous again, and some fun and even strange finds were made on various beaches lately. (Photos and video Seaside Aquarium).

That seal made famous earlier this month by a video where police officers were disentangling him from a net has wound up making a show for himself again.

Early on Saturday, Tiffany Boothe and other staff from the Seaside Aquarium responded to a call about a Guadalupe fur seal at Long Beach, Washington. It turned out to be the same seal made famous on Monday, January 7, when a video surfaced of him at Ocean Shores, Washington, with officers cutting him loose from ropes of a net. He appeared quite feisty - and bitey – as officers slowly extricated him.

“Luckily Washington police officers were able to cut the fur seal free and the fur seal happily took off back to the ocean,” Boothe said.

Saturday, the creature was still full of vim and vigor, according to aquarium manager Keith Chandler. He’d been seen another time in the last week and a half just south of Ocean Shores, then popped up again to haul out at Long Beach.

“The three-foot juvenile fur seal is headed south and looks to be fat and healthy (minus some superficial wounds from the rope that appear to be healing),” Boothe said. “Good luck little buddy.”

On the Oregon coast itself, things were no less adventurous for the aquarium crew this week. Friday saw some action with a call about large skate which had washed up at the Cove at Seaside. It was indeed big (see the photo below).

“Upon closer examination we were able to determine that the four-foot skate was a female longnose skate (Raja rhina), which had been very close to laying an egg casing (often referred to as a mermaid’s purse),” Boothe said. “The egg casing was about 5 inches long and was still in the process of developing.”

These creatures are common along the Oregon coast, and they appear periodically after storms, along with their egg casings. Seaside Aquarium has often been able to rescue the babies inside and give them a home in the aquarium.

“Longnose skates can reach a maximum size of 4 and a half feet and can live for up to 20-plus years,” Boothe said. “They are bottom feeders, which have adapted a unique way of capturing prey, by pouncing on top of their victims and pinning them to the ocean floor.”

Moon jellies were also still sighted around the north Oregon coast, Boothe said. These have made an impression over recent days, as a large number of them washed up around Cannon Beach. They were also spotted around Newport, Barview and other spots, according to Oregon Coast Beach Connection readers.

But wait, there’s more. Aquarium staff also found part of a skull from a male California sea lion, and the hatched out casing from yet another skate – the black skate. These are smaller than the longnose skate. More photos of these below. Oregon Coast Lodgings in this area - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

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