Church offers life raft to seals W
By Rachel Pritchett JOHN DANIELS
hen the sun comes out, thou- sands of Seattle folks wander down from their hillside
apartments to trendy Alki Beach to sunbathe, picnic on Spud’s fish and chips, jog or let their dogs run. Tat doesn’t leave much space for
the harbor seal pups that must haul out of the frigid Puget Sound on this crowded beach to warm up, rest and wait while their mothers chase down dinner. While harbor seals are a common
site and are by no means endan- gered, infant mortality rates in heavily urbanized areas can hit 50 percent, said Brenda Peterson, envi- ronmental author and co-founder of Seal Sitters (
www.sealsitters.org), a protection group whose work is sanctioned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion’s West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network. In part the alarming rate is due
to roaming dogs that attack the defenseless and vulnerable marine creatures, or curious humans who poke and feed them, scaring the shy mothers away for good. When they spot or get word that
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www.thelutheran.org
Sean Seuk (left), Erik Kindem and Brenda Peterson bless and tow into the Puget Sound the raft made by Peace Lutheran Church, Seattle. Members, including AJ Dowda (left, inset) and Naomi Kindem made the raft as a resting place for harbor seals, which have been occupying it nearly every day since.
a vulnerable harbor seal pup has hauled out on Alki Beach, Seal Sit- ter members race to the scene and string yellow caution tape around the resting pup. Tey stick around, offering friendly advice to beachgo- ers to leave the seals alone. Nothing is wrong and they don’t need help, they tell them. But the small group has more work than it can handle.
Peace raft Seal Sitters enlisted Peace Lutheran Church, Seattle, to help (www.
peacelutheranseattle.org). Late last summer at Peterson’s suggestion, members of the small congregation built a raſt, towed it offshore 150 yards, anchored it, prayed over it and then returned to shore. A week later Erik Kindem, pastor of Peace, and his son, Kai, squinted
ERIK KINDEM
‘I think of it as building an ark.’
out at the bobbing, low-floating plat- form. “We looked out and we could see what seemed to us to be two seals on the raſt,” Kindem said. “One was smaller and one was larger. ‘What?’ I thought, ‘Darn it, it’s working.’ ” Tey included the seals in their
prayers that evening. With her binoculars, Peterson,
who lives nearby, has seen seals on the Peace raſt, too, striking their characteristic banana pose with raised head and flippers. Cormo- rants (aquatic birds) use it too. “I think of it as building an ark,”
Peterson said.
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