Old dives

Seal(ed) With a Kiss
Susan Carter
(originally appeared in Rodale's Scuba Diving,
where it was heavily edited)

On a dive club outing to Catalina Island's Emerald Bay, my husband Don and I took a zodiac full of dive buddies north from camp for an afternoon exploratory dive. We anchored in a likely spot and enjoyed a dive searching for moray eels. St the safety stop, something grabbed my leg. Startled, I swung around, expecting to see Don pretending to be a shark. Instead, I found myself face to face with the big brown eyes of a five-foot adolescent harbor seal!

The seal spread out lengthwise and leaned his head back - obviously he wanted his chin scratched! I obliged, and he hugged me over and over again. The horseplay (sealplay?) went on until we ran low on air. We stashed our gear on the boat and continued playing a game of free-diving tag with our new friend.

General meeting

At the June general meeting, the Alacosta membership voted to spend $70 to register the name alacosta.org with InterNIC, the Internet Network Information Center.