When the calendar flips, the new year is often marked with a few kisses from dear friends and family. Since the seals and sea lions are part of our family, the trainers had to share a couple pictures of the smooches that rang in this new year!

Commander and Vanessa: Big seals give big "kisses"!

For seals, a kiss means putting their face near or touching the face of a trainer. Not only is it fun, it also builds trust between the trainer and the seal and offers a mental challenge as a new skill for the seal to learn.

Take a look—and Happy New Year!

Kitovi gives Lindsay and the new baby a kiss

This past weekend we celebrated the birthday of Reggae, the dashing Atlantic harbor seal!


On May 30, Reggae turned 22. While that may sound old, his mom lived to be 40 years old! Reggae's middle-age milestone was celebrated with special attention from the trainers, including some smooches from Lindsay.

Happy birthday, Reggae!

The next time you're visiting the Aquarium, or even just passing by on the Harborwalk, be sure to stop and check out the birthday boy. In fact, all the harbor seals have birthdays around this time—even more reason to visit and wave hello to these fascinating and fabulous marine animals!

Want to get even closer to the seals? Check out our Meet and Greet the Harbor Seals or Paint With the Seals programs! 

If you think meet and greets are dull, work-related affairs where people try to network while eating mediocre hors d’ouevres, you’ve never done a meet and greet with our Northern fur seals!

After our marine mammal trainers give you some background on the rare and endangered Northern fur seals and some instructions about how to interact with them, you’re off to the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center ….

to shake some hands ...


















get acquainted .....











share some laughs ........



and maybe even get a kiss!

Training a seal to kiss is fun and begins with "targeting." Targeting is asking a seal to touch a particular part of their body to an object. The object chosen can even be somebody's cheek! In this video you will see Ursula, a female Northern fur seal, giving smooches to Jamie, Jenny and YOU!

-Belinda

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