When my son was a tyke, we camped out on the black sand beach at Shelter Cove. We encountered a seal pup. We had tinned sardines, and my boy put some on the ground, a short distance from the seal’s nose. The pup crawled over and ate. Magic moment.
We were kayaking at Moss Landing the day after Christmas and we accidentally got too close to a couple of seal pups on the beach. The rangers on the beach went nuts telling us to back off. We had come around a point and didn’t even know they were there. The harbor and estuary was FULL of harbor seals, otters, otter pups (yes, I. December), and sea lions. It was spectacular.