Determined seal caught trying to cross California highway

The crisis began to unfold at 1 p.m. Monday when the California Highway Patrol got calls about the seal blocking the road, and they couldn’t figure out why the animal got there.

CHP, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Marine Mammal Center staff were able to herd the seal off the road but she made repeated attempts to return.

A wayward elephant seal early Tuesday continued to linger along the edge of Highway 37, stubbornly avoiding San Pablo Bay, generating a media frenzy and probably adding to the slow morning commute for westbound drivers.

Wildlife officials monitored her overnight while she slept, and as of Tuesday morning said she was back in the water, swimming around. The CHP and the Marine Mammal Center say they will be monitoring it throughout the night.

“He’s back in the water now, ” Barclay said. “She pretty much does what she wants”, said Barbie Halaska, a research assistant at the Marine Mammal Center is Sausalito. “So we’re really afraid that when it gets darker later on she might become a big speedbump”.

Using a tarp borrowed from Six Flags, about 15 people dragged her to a lift truck, which was very necessary in getting the half-ton mammal off the ground. Those trying to help the seal back in the water left the area Monday evening after she got back in the water and the tide got lower.

The first time the mammal was spotted she was trying to climb the divider wall in the median, but authorities walked behind her, guiding her to the safety of the San Fransisco Bay. At one point a number of passing motorists stopped to take pictures of the seal, further complicating traffic matters on the busy four-lane highway. Volunteers said they usually deal with stranded sea lions in this area but typically don’t see elephant seals, which are commonly found up north in Point Reyes or down in the Peninsula at Ano Nuevo State Park.