Trumpet the Atlantic harbor seal glides through the water, propelling herself onto a rock at its edge. She rests her speckled gray head on the rock and patiently waits for fish.
Passers-by outside the New England Aquarium have long been able to see Trumpet and her children, Cayenne and Chacoda, from afar. But now, a lucky few visitors can get up close and personal with the aquarium’s seals: sitting in their exhibit, watching them feed and even feeling their whiskers on their hands.
“It's just an amazing opportunity to meet these animals up close and personal,” said Patricia Leonard, assistant curator of marine mammals. “And it's just a fun opportunity for trainers as well to show off the joy of working with the harbor seals.”
The aquarium offers two kinds of meet-and-greets, each just once a day for a group of up to four people: An encounter with the seals for $150 for non-members, in which trainers will bring the group into their exhibit and demonstrate feeding, training and tricks; And an artistic encounter for $225 for non-members, in which visitors can see seals create a small painting with a paintbrush mounted onto a block the seals bite down on.
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The aquarium sees it as an opportunity to engage people, and especially children, in environmental work, Leonard said.
“For me, it's important for a number of different reasons. One, kids are basically our future, obviously," she said. "And so they are our opportunity to change what's happening in the planet and being able to help them understand the impact that they can have on the ocean environment is huge. And these harbor seals are here to help us make that connection.”
It also allows trainers to show off their work: Trumpet’s father was known as Hoover the talking seal, since he learned to mimic human speech. Hoover’s grandson, Chacoda, has picked up on the habit: On command, he can vocalize what sounds like “How are you?” — a trick his trainers reward with fish and praise.
“When he made a sound that sounded almost like a human word, we would reinforce that,” Leonard said. “And then we were more likely to hear that again in the future.”
The New England Aquarium is offering meet-and-greet slots though April and May. They plan to pause them through seal molting season, which usually begins around June.
