A wayward elephant seal that blocked traffic on a North Bay highway Monday afternoon appeared to have no desire to leave the area as the nearly 1,000-pound beast continued her game of cat and mouse with rescue workers on Tuesday.
The obstinate animal, which some rescuers have dubbed “Tolay” after the inlet she’s hold up in, showed no signs of leaving the area as of mid-morning Tuesday, still swimming around the shallow, muddy water about 20 feet off Highway 37, near Sears Point in Sonoma County.
Officials were stumped on why the seal seems so determined to cross the road.
“We have no idea,” which California Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Barclay. “There’s no water or food on the other side of 37 and we checked all along the freeway for anything she might be looking for. There’s nothing.”
The whiskered creature appeared healthy and fit, said Barbie Halaska, a research assistant at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, and experts think she might be pregnant.
"She's a beautiful animal who appears to be in perfect health," Halaska said. "She's been pretty vocal so she might be a little frustrated but otherwise she seems to be doing fine."
Around 9 a.m., veterinarians from the mammal center broke out some air horns to audibly nudge the seal toward the mouth of the inlet, but she paid them little mind and continued to relax in the mud. Just before 10 a.m., Halaska and Dave Zahniser, a rescue and response manager from the mammal center, launched a kayak in hopes of encouraging the animal toward the Bay.
“We're not trying to rush her, we just want to make it clear that it's nicer out there than it is in here," Zahniser said. “We’re not in any hurry and she definitely isn’t either.”
Things looked hopeful as the seal slowly ambled through the mud in the general direction of open water, prodded by splashing and the sounds of paddles slapping the water.
Her exit would have to wait, though. At one point Zahniser and Halaska nudged her with the kayak, prompting the seal to nudge the vessel back and even give it a nibble as she went around it and headed back toward the highway.
The California Highway Patrol warned that the two-lane highway could be shut down if the portly pinniped tried to charge across the thoroughfare again.
The mammal emergency started unfolding about 1 p.m. Monday when the CHP got calls reporting that a seal was blocking the slow lane of Highway 37, officials said.
The mammal center dispatched a rescue team, as did the San Pablo Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The CHP was also working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to persuade the seal to swim off to greener pastures.
The seal, Barclay described as a “very large, very determined elephant seal,” was successfully ushered into the bay at one point. But she repeatedly wandered back onto land, unperturbed by rescue workers who tried to corral her back into the water.
The CHP stopped tracking the seal shortly after 7 p.m. Monday when it got too dark for rescue operations, but Laura Sherr, a spokeswoman for The Marine Mammal Center, said staffers continued to monitor the situation overnight.
But at sunrise Tuesday, the stubborn seal was still swimming in the area undeterred and apparently looking for another chance to cross the road.
Halaska said they'd give her a full 24 hours to make her way off on her own. After that, as a last resort, the center was looking into sedating the the seal and using a lift to take her to a suitable release location.
Till then, "we're just in a wait and see situation," Barclay said.
