One Sunday we drove to Pt. Reyes National Seashore and climbed down a frighteningly shear cliff to a narrow beach that was clearly going to be underwater when the tide came in.  Worse, I was sure an imminent earthquake would drop boulders on us.  Steve was surf fishing, and I guess we were stoned out of my minds, because a seal popped its head out of the water and watched us from the surf, and spooked us the way he stared.  Probably just waiting to see if we caught some fish.  Steve told me the story of how years earlier when he lived in Boston he encountered a talking seal that had the brogue of an old sailor–he often had odd stories like this.  Later I heard a similar story, that Seals, and other animals,  can learn to imitate human language if they are raised around people .  Can’t recall if Steve caught anything.  fishing-at-scary-seal-beach