Seal climbs aboard Russian fishing boat, rides for 8 hours (PHOTOS)
An adventurous fur seal joined Russian fishermen for an eight-hour boat ride, refusing to swim away and insisting on an hours-long trip around the Far-Eastern Russian island of Sakhalin.
“My buddy and I took our boat out to sea. We heard someone making loud noises. We looked and there was a seal right beside us. Then we saw him climb on to the boat,” Andrey Permyakov told local Astv.ru news portal.
“After he rode with us for a bit, we decided it was time for the seal to get off. It looked like he went away, but then we saw the seal climbing back up on the boat again. It happened a few times more.”
The friendly visitor ended up hanging out with the fishermen for eight hours. The seal only left the boat after it returned to shore after sunset.
The two men guessed that the seal was not there in search of food, since there was none on the boat – they had only gone out to place fishing nets. They added that the animal looked healthy.
It’s common to see seals around fishing boats, but none are usually brave enough to actually climb on board the vessels, Permyakov said.
