SeaDoc Society Wildlife veternarian Joe Gaydos will give a free public lecture on elephant seals for the Orcas Island Marine Lecture Series’ Family Night “Elephant Seals: Divers of the Deep”. The evening includes a free dinner at YMCA Camp Orkila’s Larry Norman Lodge and elephant seal- related educational activities for children.

Of the different seals and sea lions found in the region, elephant seals are by far the largest. Adult males can be 15 feet long and weigh 5,000 pounds. These seals mate and give birth on beaches and islands off the coast of California and Mexico. Males make long-distance migrations to southern Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and back twice a year, while females tend to migrate west and have been sighted as far as Midway Atoll in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. While they forage off the continental shelf where they make dives almost a mile deep, some elephant seals do come into the inland waters surrounding the San Juan Islands to haul out and rest. Elephant seals hold their breath for long periods of time even while resting on land. This regularly fools people into thinking they are dead.  In the summer, large male elephant seals can be seen around the San Juan Islands, inspiring some and baffling others.

The lecture and dinner will be on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 5:30 p.m. Please park in the upper parking lot at Camp Orkila. Shuttle service from the parking lot to the talk is available before and after the lecture.

The 2008-2009 Marine Science Lecture Series is presented by program partners The SeaDoc Society and YMCA Camp Orkila. It has been made possible through generous sponsorship by Tom Averna (Deer Harbor Charters), Barbara Brown, The Gould Family Foundation and co-sponsorship by Shearwater Kayaks and Jim and Kathy Youngren.