PORT ANGELES — A young elephant seal that settled on a downtown Port Angeles beach has been given a lift to a safer location.
The female seal, about four to six months old, landed on Hollywood Beach over the weekend. But scientists from the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary decided that to protect the seal — and the public — it needed a more remote place. On Tuesday, scientists gently loaded the cub into a minivan and drove it to beaches at the end of Ediz Hook.
Marine sanctuary research coordinator Ed Bowlby says it’s uncommon to find elephant seals on beaches near Port Angeles. He says the seal may have come ashore while molting, a natural but painful process where it sheds its old coat and grows a new one.
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