Lackawaxen seal story lives on

FRITZ MAYER
Posted 10/3/18

HONESDALE, PA — A picture of a seal said to be in the Lackawaxen River and video purportedly of the same thing have been making the rounds on social media lately. It all started shortly after …

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Lackawaxen seal story lives on

Posted

HONESDALE, PA — A picture of a seal said to be in the Lackawaxen River and video purportedly of the same thing have been making the rounds on social media lately. It all started shortly after September 16, when John Joseph Fotusky shot footage of an animal swimming in the river (tinyurl.com/y7m5cpjh). Some viewers thought it was a river otter, but Fotusky said he knew what he saw, and the people at the Marine Mammal Stranding Center agreed that the creature he caught on camera was a harbor seal.

The director of the center, Robert Schoelkopf, said the seal sighting was reported several weeks ago, and there haven’t been any other sightings since then. He and his colleagues viewed the video taken by Fotusky and verified that the animal in it was a harbor seal. He said, however that representatives from the PA Fish and Game identified the animal as river otter. “But,” he said, “it was not; it’s a seal.”

He said it’s a little unusual to see a seal that far up river, but not totally unheard of. “We’ve seen seals in other areas of fresh water before. They go up looking for food, they find food, and when the food runs out they turn around and go south again, and they go with the current. As long as the food quantity is there, they’ll continue to stay in the area.”

The seal was not in any stress or danger, and Schoelkopf said it’s not the job of the center to pick up seals just because they’re there. “We’ve had them in Philadelphia, Trenton, NJ, in areas like that before where you wouldn’t normally see seals.” But his organization only picks up a seal if there’s a problem with human interaction, or illness.

Schooelkopf did see another post about a seal in the river, a picture of a seal jumping on a person’s kayak. He said, “It would have been good, except the seal was not a harbor seal; it was a grey seal on the guy’s kayak, and in the corner of the photo in fine print it was identified as being from National Geographic.”

As for Fotusky, he recently posted this on his Facebook page. “I wanna say that the seal adventure still lives on. And that further proof has been shown. It’s been very cool to hear or read the people that were nay-sayers admit they were wrong. Some even messaged me personally. Thank you.

“As far as the Fish and Boat Commission, they never asked or reached out. Their typical response to issues… I hope their phones are blowing up with calls and text messages.”

The River Reporter asked via Facebook if he ever saw the seal again. He replied, “No, we never seen a trace. Rumors were that someone else [did]. A woman seen and took a pic 10 miles south of Honesdale. Meaning it is headed in the right direction if it’s going back into the bay.”

Lackawaxen, Seal, marine mammall stranding center, PA fish and game commission

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