The Route We Refused
The adult seals did not charge. One low call made the boundary clear. Fang counted the pups. I counted the exits. We stopped outside the steam. There was no reason to make them warn us twice.
Field Observation
We followed the upwind shelf from Low-Tide Sound Bridge to the outer warm springs without entering the seals' waterway. After checking the nursery from above, we gave up the shorter shore route and took Rockfall Cableway completely around the warm pools.
Morning · Steam Nursery Bay
Fang watched from the upwind shelf with a long-range sensor while I marked our retreat line. The silver-gray pups rested in the warm pools. The adults formed a barrier around them without coming closer, so we stayed outside it and planned a route around the waterway.
Noon · Warm-Spring Outer Rim
When the pulse arrived, every pup lifted its head and the adults' dark crimson mineral ridges flashed once. Fang put away the active scanner. I deleted the shortcut from the map. The route to the radar ring would not pass through a nursery.
Evening · Rockfall Cableway
The last pup returned to the warm pool before the adults looked away. Fang climbed onto the cableway first. I stayed behind long enough to confirm that our marker gave off neither light nor sound. A quiet route was the only acceptable route tonight.
Habitat Causality
The geothermal pools shelter the pups, and the adults defend the nursery channels with a readable boundary. The abandoned radar pulse reaches even this protected habitat, making the pups raise their heads and the adults' mineral ridges glow. That evidence links the nursery disturbance to the old system, while the seals' boundary forces us onto a higher route that leaves their return corridor intact.
Species Behavior
Adult females guard the nursery together. They warn approaching animals or people by slapping the water, calling low, and blocking the channel rather than charging. They remain alert until the last pup returns to the warm pool, then relax when observers take the upper detour.
「We kept the evidence and left the nursery its silence. A route being possible does not make it the right one.」
