A celebrity elephant seal in Victoria has been taken away from his adoring fans, once again.
An elephant seal nicknamed Emerson came ashore this week to moult, and has been spotted in various places around the capital region. On Friday he was corralled into a Fisheries and Oceans vehicle near the Gorge waterway. It took a half-dozen people with boards and pallets to get the large marine mammal into the vehicle.
CHEK News has posted several videos of Emerson’s antics, you can see them here.
Emerson returned to the Gorge (April 5)
Emerson is well-known on both sides of the border, he was born in Puget Sound in 2022. He has visited the Capital region several times since, climbing stairs and crossing roads in Victoria during his month-long moulting process. He has been relocated four times by Fisheries officers.
He has been taken to an undisclosed beach on the Island’s west coast.
Moulting is a natural annual process for elephant seals, when they shed dead skin and hair to make way for the new. It can be painful and makes the seals grouchy as they come ashore to help speed along the process. In urban environments, large animals like Emerson can get caught in negative interactions with onlookers and off-leash dogs, prompting DFO to move him to a safer location.
