{"id":108698,"date":"2026-02-22T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/?p=108698"},"modified":"2026-02-22T19:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T03:18:12","slug":"new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/","title":{"rendered":"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Seattle Aquarium has a new resident\u2014 a 12-year-old harbor seal named Flounder, who recently joined the Aquarium\u2019s harbor seal habitat.<\/p>\n

Flounder comes to Seattle following the closure of Miami Seaquarium in October 2025, part of a broader effort to relocate animals to accredited facilities where they can continue receiving specialized care. Born in human care and dependent on caregivers for food and daily support, Flounder was deemed non-releasable, meaning he cannot safely live in the wild.<\/p>\n

Now, Aquarium staff say he\u2019s settling into his new home alongside harbor seals Casey and Hogan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled to welcome Flounder,\u201d said Lisa Hartman, Seattle Aquarium\u2019s Vice President of Animal Care, in a statement. \u201cWe are always seeking opportunities to advance our mission by providing safe and welcoming homes to marine mammals that cannot live in the wild and for whom we can provide excellent care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrival comes after the passing of Barney<\/a>, one of the longest-lived harbor seals in human care, which created space within the Aquarium\u2019s harbor seal habitat for a new resident. The habitat features a large pool and a haul-out area where seals can rest, along with multiple viewing panels that give visitors an up-close look at these playful marine mammals.<\/p>\n

Harbor seals are a familiar sight along Washington\u2019s coastlines and waterways, but seeing them at the Aquarium offers families a chance to observe their behaviors, learn about their role in marine ecosystems, and explore conservation efforts aimed at protecting local wildlife.<\/p>\n

In addition to harbor seals, guests can see northern fur seals Chiidax and Flaherty \u2014 among fewer than 10 northern fur seals living in zoos and aquariums across the United States \u2014 as well as river otter Molalla and sea otters Mishka, Ruby, and Sekiu at the Aquarium.<\/p>\n

Families interested in meeting Flounder can visit the harbor seal habitat during regular Aquarium hours, currently 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Animal care teams encourage guests to watch for the seals\u2019 playful interactions both with one another and with their caregivers during enrichment and feeding sessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet the Aquarium\u2019s newest seal & learn how he\u2019s settling in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1145,"featured_media":108699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Seattle Aquarium welcomes a new harbor seal, Flounder, to its habitat. Learn why he can\u2019t return to the wild and what families can expect when visiting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Seattle Aquarium welcomes a new harbor seal, Flounder, to its habitat. Learn why he can\u2019t return to the wild and what families can expect when visiting.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Seattle's Child\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SeattlesChild\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-23T03:02:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-23T03:18:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"717\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Seattle's Child Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SeaChildMag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SeaChildMag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Seattle's Child Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Seattle's Child Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26ac207c39d8346029550d313f6a29ad\"},\"headline\":\"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-23T03:02:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-23T03:18:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/\"},\"wordCount\":348,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/\",\"name\":\"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-23T03:02:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-23T03:18:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Seattle Aquarium welcomes a new harbor seal, Flounder, to its habitat. Learn why he can\u2019t return to the wild and what families can expect when visiting.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":717,\"caption\":\"All the way from Miami, 12-year-old Flounder is settling in to being a Seattleite. (Image courtesy Seattle Aquarium)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/\",\"name\":\"Seattle's Child\",\"description\":\"Activities and Resources for Parents and Kids in greater Seattle\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Seattle's Child\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/seattles-logo-1.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/seattles-logo-1.svg\",\"width\":455,\"height\":64,\"caption\":\"Seattle's Child\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SeattlesChild\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/SeaChildMag\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/seattleschildmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/seattleschild\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26ac207c39d8346029550d313f6a29ad\",\"name\":\"Seattle's Child Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c8b5afb902c6d98aabea56b3ce4add4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c8b5afb902c6d98aabea56b3ce4add4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Seattle's Child Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/author\/scstaff\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder","description":"The Seattle Aquarium welcomes a new harbor seal, Flounder, to its habitat. Learn why he can\u2019t return to the wild and what families can expect when visiting.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder","og_description":"The Seattle Aquarium welcomes a new harbor seal, Flounder, to its habitat. Learn why he can\u2019t return to the wild and what families can expect when visiting.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/","og_site_name":"Seattle's Child","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SeattlesChild\/","article_published_time":"2026-02-23T03:02:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-23T03:18:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":717,"url":"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Seattle's Child Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SeaChildMag","twitter_site":"@SeaChildMag","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Seattle's Child Staff","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/"},"author":{"name":"Seattle's Child Staff","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26ac207c39d8346029550d313f6a29ad"},"headline":"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder","datePublished":"2026-02-23T03:02:11+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:18:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/"},"wordCount":348,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/","url":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/","name":"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-23T03:02:11+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:18:12+00:00","description":"The Seattle Aquarium welcomes a new harbor seal, Flounder, to its habitat. Learn why he can\u2019t return to the wild and what families can expect when visiting.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/images.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260126_animals_piers_dz_0006-scaled-e1771453635212.jpg","width":1200,"height":717,"caption":"All the way from Miami, 12-year-old Flounder is settling in to being a Seattleite. (Image courtesy Seattle Aquarium)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/new-harbor-seal-seattle-aquarium-flounder\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Seattle Aquarium welcomes new harbor seal Flounder"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/","name":"Seattle's Child","description":"Activities and Resources for Parents and Kids in greater Seattle","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#organization","name":"Seattle's Child","url":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/seattles-logo-1.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/seattles-logo-1.svg","width":455,"height":64,"caption":"Seattle's Child"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SeattlesChild\/","https:\/\/x.com\/SeaChildMag","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/seattleschildmag\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/seattleschild\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/person\/26ac207c39d8346029550d313f6a29ad","name":"Seattle's Child Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c8b5afb902c6d98aabea56b3ce4add4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c8b5afb902c6d98aabea56b3ce4add4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Seattle's Child Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/author\/scstaff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108700,"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108698\/revisions\/108700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}