Siem and Mitch (both 13) saw her in the ‘strawberry ditch’, a ditch between the Ringvaart and the U onweg, a little more towards the Westeinderplassen. “He told us completely proudly that he had seen her,” Siem’s mother Annemieke told NH.
The family is often on holiday on Vlieland, where seals can be seen regularly. Her son became a fan of them. He thinks that he has spotted one so close to home. “At first I thought he was fooling me,” laughs his mother.
That is not a crazy thought, because the seal has had to do its best to get to Aalsmeer. In Amsterdam she was seen in the Amstel at Park Somerlust, where she apparently was very happy. She stayed there for a few days.
Route
At the coffee maker of The Amstel, Gooi and Vecht Water Board was busy today on the route that the seal may have traveled. “Of course we don’t know for sure, because we are not tracking him,” says spokesman Aukje Schep.
“But to come from the Amstel in Aalsmeer, you will come across one lock: the new Meersluis,” she continues. “There she may have come in different ways. She probably just swam through the lock by boat. Then she then passed the Amsterdamse Bos and Schiphol and went under the Aalsmeerderbrug.”