@tommy_smalls79: Grey seals treat calm divers like members of their own social group, using touch, whiskers, and gentle bites to investigate unfamiliar things. The flipper grabs, face nuzzles, and playful pawing that look like hugging are actually exploratory and social behaviors the seals use with each other every day. Grey seals are highly social and play through mock bites, body contact, and chasing, much like dogs wrestle and roughhouse. Their front flippers can grasp in a surprisingly precise way, which lets them physically hold onto a diver and creates that unmistakable puppy underwater impression. Individual relationships also matter here. Divers who spend years around the same colonies, like Ben Burville, give seals enough time to learn that a still and non-threatening human is safe to approach. It is a reminder that what looks like interspecies affection is really an animal extending its normal social behavior to a calm and familiar presence.

Tommy Smalls II

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Tuesday 30 June 2026 02:30:00 GMT