From the crowded party inside the Alki Bathhouse, to the ribbon-cutting for Georgia Gerber‘s bronze sculpture “Sentinels of the Sound” outside the bathhouse:

… to the hundreds who watched and applauded …

… Seal Sitters‘ Harbor Seal Day celebration made a big splash on this sunny Sunday, celebrating the volunteers who watch over visiting pups, and the marine mammals themselves, all as the highlight of the group’s Year of the Seal outreach project. The outdoor event that kicked it off included Seal Sitters’ Robin Lindsey and Brenda Peterson, Duwamish Tribe member Ken Workman greeting everyone in Lushootseed, artist Gerber, young Seal Sitters, Bernie Matsuno from the city Department of Neighborhoods reading Mayor McGinn‘s proclamation and State Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon reading Governor Inslee‘s proclamation.

See it all in our video:

More photos ahead!

Other local organizations and advocates joined in the celebration. Here are Donna Sandstrom from The Whale Trail and Jeff Hogan from Killer Whale Tales:

From Puget SoundKeeper Alliance and Tox-Ick.org, “Diver Laura” James was on hand – shown below talking with ceremony emcee Jim Dever from KING 5‘s Evening Magazine (which moves to 7:30 pm starting tomorrow, by the way):

Back inside, harbor-seal masks were offered to young attendees:

Craft activities were available too:

Stories and artworks created by kids as part of a Seal Sitters contest were displayed during the event too; in the photo below is Stella, the third-grader who won the essay contest, winning four Seattle Aquarium passes:

Everywhere, there were drawings and photos reminding people what it was all about – pups like this one photographed by Peter Rowen during a recent Alki sunset:

Day in and day out, you can get the latest “pupdates” from Seal Sitters by checking out blubberblog.org.