Seals are awesome. It's not a coincidence that we have a Naval Special Warfare unit named after them.

Cool story:

When I was at the Naval Special Warfare Center during EOD School, we would regularly swim Coronado Bay, from NAS North Island, CA to San Diego and back. The area's harbor seals would regularly swim with us. Sometimes, dolphins would swim with us, too. I saw more dolphins on the Pacific side of the isthmus than the bay, though. But the seals around San Diego would almost always seek us out about half way to San Diego. I don't know about the rest of my training class, but growing up swimming in the open ocean and Biscayne Bay near Miami, I grew to have a love for marine life. When the seals would show up, it was always when I was feeling like I should quit. Seeing those seals, and sometimes dolphins swimming with us would buoy my spirits and I would finish the swim. Often, I was either first or second to finish, after being towards the back of the pack for the first half. (I'm short, 5'7", and I have short legs. It's hard to keep up with guys that are 4-8 inches taller than you.)

Anyway, the point is, seals know when humans are struggling in the water and will routinely swim over to you to see what the deal is. Most won't bother with you, but the seals around NSWC aren't just normal, run of the mill seals. They have an affinity towards Navy Special Warfare that I haven't seen anywhere else in the world, which makes me think it's the reason why the Navy named our Tier 1 operators SeALs. Those seals have been around our SeAL/UDT/EOD members for generations now.

Seals are awesome. It's not a coincidence that we have a Psecial Ops force named after them.

Cool story:

When I was at the Naval Special Warfare Center in EOD School, we would regularly swim Coronado Bay, from NAS North Island, CA to San Diego and back. The areas harbor seals would regularly swim with us. I don't know about the rest of my training class, but growing up swimming in the open ocean and Biscayne Bay near Miami, I grew to have a love for marine life. When the seals would show up, it was always when I was feeling like I should quit. Seeing those seals, and sometimes dolphins swimming with us would buoy my spirits and I would finish the swim. Often, I was either first or second to finish, after being towards the back of the pack for the first half. (I'm short, 5'7". It's hard to keep up with guys that are 6-8 inches taller than you.)

Anyway, the point is, seals know when humans are struggling in the water and will routinely swim over to you to see what the deal is. Most won't bother with you, but the seals around NSWC aren't just normal, run of the mill seals. They have an affinity towards Navy Special Warfare that I haven't seen anywhere else in the world, which makes me think it's the reason why the Navy named our Tier 1 operators SeALs. Those seals have been around our SeAL/UDT/EOD members for generations now.