Rusty Hunter has been documenting his dives for years, but it wasn’t until recently that he started seeing the same little white seal swimming around him. \u00a0<\/p>\n
“I felt one of her hands just kind of touching me and grabbing my head,” Hunter said. “She really started to kind of latch onto me.” \u00a0<\/p>\n
At first, he said the seal’s approach was timid. But over time, after testing the waters with him enough, she became rather comfortable coming right up to him.<\/p>\n
“You would think that a seal would have more important things to do, hunting or resting,” Hunter said. “I can’t help but think it was some level of curiosity and maybe craving a little attention.”<\/p>\n
On nearly a dozen different dives, the seal swam up to Hunter, greeting him like a dog and sometimes playing with his flippers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“A lot of people do call them water pups or the dogs of the ocean,” Hunter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hunter said he doesn’t take the ethereal encounters lightly because of his deep respect for the ocean.<\/p>\n
“I think the relationship is really built off that surrendering, of letting her be the one who instigates the interactions, Hunter said. “It’s on her terms.”<\/p>\n