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Massive elephant seal ‘Tolay’ tries to cross highway, blocks traffic
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.
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ABC News reports that elephant seal had repeatedly tried crossing the highway despite being guided back to a bay multiple times. The rescue team rolled the animal onto a large tarp and towed it through the mud, loading it onto a lift and into a truck bed, where officials took blood samples and conducted an ultrasound test, which revealed that the animal was pregnant.
The whiskered beast that blocked Highway 37 traffic Monday seemed determined to hang out in the marsh at Tolay Creek near Sonoma Raceway and Sears Point, refusing to return to the bay. “So she’s got a lot of weight, she’s got a lot of strength on her, she could tear the board away from your hands if you don’t hold it the proper way”, Marine Mammal Center expert Barbie Halaska said.
Elephant seals have been breeding on Chimney Rock near Point Reyes for more than 150 years.
TMCC rescue team members and California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers tried to help the seal into the water, but she kept coming back to the roadway, Sherr said. CHP Officer Andrew Barclay told ABC station KGO that the seal caused a mile-long traffic jam in both directions. “We can only do so much because she has the advantage in the water”, Halaska said.
Halaska planned to get in the water in a kayak Tuesday morning and attempt to drive the seal out of the inlet she is in and back toward the larger Bay and the Golden Gate.
California Highway Patrol will monitor the area closely over the next few days to make sure the stubborn sea mammal doesn’t re-emerge.
She appeared to be very healthy and showed no sign of illnesses, Halaska said.
An expert indicated that the female seal, possibly pregnant, might have been trying to get to the dry field on the other side to give birth, reported WREG.
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“She is at the proper age, but I’m not a veterinarian, I can’t be certain”, he said.