h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Seals seem kind of shy to me. I doubt that these ones would be cavorting like that if there were people there...

They get there with the tide, and stay when the tide goes down.
The colony has been there for years, and volunteers make sure the humans don't get too close (human volunteers, not seals).

I'm glad to hear that.

I have seen similar bunching of seals at Loch Fleet in the highlands. When I was in Cape Wrath at the top of the Scottish coast (North West corner), there was a load of them on a slab. Looking down on them from the highest cliffs on the UK mainland, it looked like maggots on a piece of cheese

I saw some the other day, but I promised not to tell. My lips are sealed.

I am envious of all this seal-spotting. The nearest ocean beach to here is 575 km away.

If you walk along Lake Erie in Cleveland, there are signs that say, "Don't feed the seals."
http://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/9kw3lc/are_there_seals_in_the_great_lakes_and_if_so_how/

This is a joke, of course, and I realize that even if there were seals in Cleveland, you'd sill have to schlep a long way to get there.

But imagine that Lake Erie really *had* seals. You are probably less than 100 miles from Lake Erie.

Would you settle for otters? The city of Erie has an ice hockey team called the Otters. Otters would not likely be found in the lake itself, but there's a species of river otter that might be found in one of the rivers that flows into Lake Erie
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/species-and-habitats/species-guide-index/mammals/river-otter

(I'm being discursive here. I blame the story I am writing; the main character lives on Non sequitur Avenue)

Maybe it was Navy seals? I don't know if this counts as a non sequitur but as nothing followed from that thread eventually...

The seals in Cleveland are lucky that the river isn't on fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y0mskbIxRQ

Cleveland is the "Mistake on the lake."