Meet Brolli
Brolli
The Fish Gazing Seal
Out of all my seal encounters, the most intriguing occurred with “Brolli” (named by Brixham charity ‘The Seal Project’). During my dives, Brolli became somewhat of a familiar face to me. With a beautiful pelage and an inquisitive, playful nature she never shied away from interaction with me or the camera. With these close interactions it became apparent she had a damaged eye, although she seemed completely unhindered by this and swam about with the usual precision and elegance of any other seal.
Brolli is truly the embodiment of the amazing resilience of seals, even a blind seal can
survive in the wild. Although Brolli does have one working eye, the incredible sensory system that seals possess, in the form of their whiskers, would enable a completely blind seal to navigate their way through water as well as hunt. Due to their incredibly unique, ribbed structure, the whiskers can be pushed out into the water without being forced lush against the seal’s face. The ribbing disrupts the water low, reducing unnecessary vibrations that may otherwise disrupt the ones they are relying on. These super sensitive ish detectors pick up movements in the water allowing them to follow the trail of movement prey leave behind. This helps all seals including the blind, as where the water visibility is low, or at night, seals can still navigate.
Brolli’s resilience aside, her curious nature and apparent ability to recognize me really made each encounter special. When out diving or snorkelling with other people, if we encountered Brolli she would seem to be able to pick me out of the group and immediately head over to me ignoring the rest. Initially, she would come to inspect the camera so maybe that is what she recognised; however it is nice to believe you’ve made a friend.
Of all my encounters with Brolli, one was so unique that it left me in complete awe – a rare insight into the life of a seal. Diving a site where I frequently met her, I entered the water and inned through a thick patch of weed and, as I hoped, a head suddenly popped up in front of me. It was Brolli. Coming over, she greeted me by performing her usual checks of my camera and ins, however her attention litted between me, and something tucked amongst the kelp. On closer inspection I realised it was a crab or lobster pot she kept nosing. Moving myself around in front of her I stayed very still observing her behaviour. Her attention soon completely left me, and she was intently focused on the pot.
As she lifted her head, I noticed she was carrying a piece ofish in her mouth, a prize she had retrieved from inside the pot. Brolli then proceeded to lay the ish on top of the pot. I assumed she was going to eat it, however, instead she decided to leave it there. Moving away from the stolen bait she settled a few feet away on the seabed. Now I was bafled.I then noticed small little ish begin to appear. They edgedever closer to the bait before eventually they began to nibbleand start eating Brolli’s prize. Immediately, Brolli rushed up shaking her head around and scattered the small gathering of ish, obviously defending her food, or so I thought. She then retreated back to the seabed only to lay in wait once again. All this while, her good eye remained transixed on the little ish loating nearby. Sure enough, after a second or two, the little ish got brave and decided to try for the bait; a few of them landed on it and once again Brolli pounced, shaking them off the meat.It was as though she was playing with the ish; enticing them in, only to scare them off then repeat the process. She did this a few more times before completely leaving the bait and swimming off.
