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totally blind and would have a long lingering suffering death. Fortunately I was 

 ahle to very quickly end her misery, and I adopted the baby. I have never known 

 a more delightfully intelligent and affectionate little friend. He became the mas- 

 cot of the Los Angeles lifeguards and was known and admired by thousands of 

 people. He loved to surf with me, and when I body-surfed large waves he would 

 fall on the curling breaker and ride it all the way to shore right beside me. 



Periodically ever since then, I have been finding dead or wounded seals and 

 sealions and their sad and tru.sting babies. This may sound incongruous for a 

 230 pound ex-amateur wrestler, but I have definitely found that if I softly sing 

 Brahm's lullaby and make no sudden motions while I drift very slowly in my 

 canoe toward all sorts of wildlife, I can usually drift right up to them and make 

 friends. However, the following experience is an example of why I have been 

 deprived of this sort of pleasure. 



I was paddling a kayak through the kelp beds off Salt Creek, in Southern Cali- 

 fornia, when, a quarter of a mile away, I noticed a bump on a log that was float- 

 ing in the thick kelp. Soon I saw that the bump was a very young baby harbor 

 seal. In le.ss than half an hour I had slowly drifted in a very light breeze to the 

 log, and the baby seal, that had slid into the water, was nuzzling my hand, and 

 I was scratching its head. These baby harbor seals have such cute faces, with the 

 black circles around their eyes, and their sweet affectionate expressions, that 

 you can't help falling in love with them. It was playful and swam around my 

 hand in the water, and finally slid up on the d^ck of my kayak right in front of 

 me where it enjoyed having me pet and scratch it. 



Then suddenly a large harmless California Gray Whale came up and loudly 

 blew, about fifty feet away. They are curious and often come close to investigate 

 and sometimes swim right under me — six inches from the bottom of my kayak. 

 I suppose the seal's instinctive fear of killer whales caused it to take off like a 

 torpedo in a series of porpoi.se dives along the surface straight toward .shore. 

 I lost sight of it and figured I would never see it again, and paddled farther up 

 the coast, surfed in my kayak for an hour and then on my back paddled along- 

 side the log. Two feet down in the clear water I saw a large rare bright green 

 crab on a stalk of kelp and decided to take it home and photograph it to add to 

 my color movie on local sea life. With my hand in the water I was surprised to 

 .suddenly have it nudged again by the baby seal. I played with it again and finally 

 paddled along the coast for home, and the baby seal must have been lonesome for 

 its mother, for it followed me. 



I shall never tame another seal, because it gives them confidence in the kind- 

 ness of humans, and they swim near yachts and commercial fishing boats. I 

 found the baby seal's body next morning on the beach with a bullet hole through 

 its side. 



This is only one of hundreds of such cases of ignorance and cruelty. Firearms 

 are carried on almost all commercial fishing boats and many yachts. There is no 

 valid rea.son for this. I have done commercial fishing and it is annoying when 

 seals interfere, although I don't consider their interference suflBciently important 

 to warrant the murderous ethics of the fishermen. I was almost always the first 

 one to reach the gun, and the others couldn't understand why I always came so 

 close, but never managed to hit a seal. The shot always frightened them away, 

 and I believe a stone thrown at them would be just as effective. 



Yachtsmen have no reason to have firearms aboard. They are used only to sadis- 

 tically shoot any living creature just for the fun of killing. San Juan Rock, near 

 where I live, would normally have many sealions on it, but you seldom see more 

 than two or three young ones that haven't learned to fear man. I often see the 

 rotting bodies of sealions, pelicans, cormorants, seagulls, etc., on the rock — shot 

 just for fun by passing yachtsmen and commercial fishermen. 



Intelligent killer whales have never been known to harm a human being. One 

 once playfully tossed a skin diver out of the water just as they do with their 

 own calves. Of their own free will they have aided humans in their work. A baby 

 killer whale was shot and killed from the bridge of a tuna clipper. The mother 

 charged and rammed the clipi)er. Can you blame her? I would as soon shoot my 

 gentle intelligent Nevpfoundland dog. 



The skipi)er of a tuna clipper I fished on delighted in shooting iwrpoises as they 

 played so beautifully in front of the ship. Bang and the graceful motion stops 

 dead ; and the body sinks slowly in the clear blue water in red clouds of blood. 



It has been my experience that the more study and mature understanding a man 

 has of wild animals, the more sympathy and consideration he has for all wild life. 

 Often puhlicity misrepresents wild animals. I have slowly approached and petted 

 absolutely wild skunks. After spending several years in Africa making moving 



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