Sealed with love, from a joyriding seal

Heart-warming pictures from Sakhalin in the extreme east of Russia show how the seal insisted on making friends with two fishermen, insisting they ferry him around on their boat for eight hours. Andrei and two of his friends had gone out on their boat when they heard 'something shouting'.

'We look out, and see that a fur seal has come up beside us,' he told Sakhalin's ASTV.ru 'Then he up and climbs into our boat. We let him ride around with us for a bit, and then decide that we should try to drive him away. He climbs off, and we figure that we've driven him away.

'But then he climbs on again, and this repeats several times over.'

The seal posed for pictures on the small fishing boat and ended up staying with the friends all day, so determined to be in people's company he growled each time they tried to get him back into the sea. The animal wasn't injuired, the fishermen said, not was he looking for food, as they had nothing to eat with them except for their fishing tackle. 

'We've never met such an inquisitive and friendly animal'. Pictures here and below: ASTV

'This was the first time that anything like this has happened to us, although we go out to sea often,' Andrei said. 'Usually if we see marine animals, they just swim past the boat and that's it. But this time we got a curious and sociable one.'

'We've never met such an inquisitive and friendly animal'.

After returning to shore, the fishermen parted ways with the seal for the last time, sending him back to sea.