Popeye (seal)

Popeye is the name of a female harbor seal that frequently appeared in the marina of Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington, between the mid-1990s and the late 2010s. The Port of Friday Harbor named her its official seal in 2005.

Biography

Popeye began frequently visiting the Friday Harbor marina around 1995, and soon became a well-known local figure; the name was derived from her conspicuously cloudy white left eye. In 2005, the Port of Friday Harbor named her the port's official seal and commissioned a granite sculpture of her, which to this day stands in Fairweather Park adjacent to the Marina. On August 1, 2017, Popeye attracted media attention when she bit a visiting tourist, which was reported as the only recorded incident of a harbor seal ever attacking a human; then-Port of Friday Harbor executive director Todd Nicholson chalked up the incident to her frustration at not being given food by visitors to the same extent as earlier; feeding wildlife is illegal according to Washington state law. She has not been seen since the late 2010s: as female harbor seals only live to the age of 25–35 years, this is presumably due to a natural death.