NEED TO KNOW
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Authorities in California are searching for two people who were seen throwing rocks at an elephant seal on a National Park Service property
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Point Reyes National Seashore, located north of San Francisco, shared that video from the beach’s livestream captured two people on Dec. 6 throwing rocks
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Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the NPS tip line at 888-653-0009
Authorities in California are searching for two people who were seen throwing rocks at a protected species of seal on a National Park Service (NPS) property in Dec. 2025.
In a Facebook post on Dec. 19, Point Reyes National Seashore, located north of San Francisco, shared a video from the park’s Chimney Rock beach livestream that captured two people around on Dec. 6 at around 3:40 p.m., throwing rocks at an elephant seal.
The park said that one of the suspects was a woman with black hair, wearing a white baseball cap, a red-and-dark-colored jacket with blue-and-gold accents, and jeans. The other person captured on camera throwing rocks at an elephant seal was a man wearing a dark coat with neon yellow accents, including a neon yellow-lined hood, and who seemed to be carrying a large black DSLR-style camera.
According to the park, the video appears to show the woman throwing a rock that hits the elephant seal, and the man throwing rocks toward the seal.
NPS Photo / Marine Mammal Center
Footage of the incident from Point Reyes National Seashore.
“The footage shows deliberate throwing actions by both individuals,” the park wrote on Facebook, asking for the public’s help in identifying the man and woman. “These animals are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and other NPS wildlife regulations.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, the Marine Mammal Center (MMC), a nonprofit animal hospital, said the upsetting incident first came to light after an individual watching MMC’s live-stream camera at the NPS property witnessed the cruelty.
“The Marine Mammal Center first received an email Saturday evening, December 6, from a member of the public from Japan who saw the video on our Chimney Rock camera at Point Reyes National Seashore (was not on scene) and wasn’t sure what to do or how to report due to English not being a first language. The live camera in Point Reyes National Seashore is part of a wider network of WebCOOS wildlife cameras,” the statement noted.
The nonprofit added that it passed the report from the concerned viewer onto the National Park Service (Point Reyes National Seashore) and to NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, since the center does “not serve in a law enforcement capacity.”
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“Larger male northern elephant seals have in recent weeks started to come and go from the Chimney Rock area within Point Reyes National Seashore in advance of annual elephant seal pupping season here along the central and northern California coast,” Giancarlo Rulli, MMC associate director of public relations, shared in the statement to PEOPLE. “It appears from the video that just the one adult male was present and harassed.”
MMC added in its statement that all “marine mammals, including northern elephant seals, are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Actions that harass or harm these animals are not only unlawful and subject to fines and jail time but can also cause significant stress and injury.”
According to the organization, this type of harassment — throwing rocks at animals — is “relatively rare” for MMC sites.
Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty
A male elephant seal at Ano Nuevo State Park in Pescadero, Calif. Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.
“This particular incident, however, is a clear example of intentional harassment toward a resting marine mammal with a clear risk of injury. The footage is both alarming and extremely distressing. No photograph or wildlife experience warrants this type of behavior,” Adam Ratner, director of conservation engagement at The Marine Mammal Center, said in the statement.
According to the National Park Service, Point Reyes National Seashore is a 71,000-acre protected coastal area in northern California containing grasslands, brushy hillsides, and forested ridges that are home to more than 1500 species of plants and animals — including elephant seals, which are often spotted on the beach from December to March.
The NPS states that northern elephant seals are the second-largest seals in the world and are identified by their large noses that resemble an elephant’s trunk. Males can grow up to 13 feet in length and weigh up to 5,000 pounds. Females are smaller, growing up to 10 feet and weighing up to 1,700 pounds.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits feeding, attempting to feed, and harassing marine mammals in the wild, according to the NPS.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the NPS tip line at 888-653-0009.
Read the original article on People