Green Tie

Green Tie is an elephant seal who had two plastic entanglements around his neck, leaving him with a pair of distinct scars. Veterinarians from the Marine Mammal Center disentangled him the first time in 2011 and checked on him in 2012, when his scarred skin appeared to be another entanglement. It turned out to be a skin irritation, but not another plastic strap.

He showed up on the beach again in February 2013, when he accommodated me by taking this pose for a photo.

On June 24, this seal slept on the beach. Is he Green Tie? If he cooperates, I'll get a better picture and be able to tell for sure. Green Tie has an orange tag, placed on him in 2011 when he was first disentangled by the Marine Mammal Center. The tags are difficult to see, being only an inch and a half long and placed on the back flippers. when the flippers are folded up, the tag is usually concealed.

Distinctive scars are another way of identifying individual seals.