ANCHORAGE — Fred Parnell says he wasn’t expecting marine animals to be in the roadway, so he was shocked when he hit something that felt like “a brick wall” during his daily commute.
The Alaska Dispatch News reported that the 75-year-old public works director for St. Paul Island ran into a 300-pound northern fur seal last week.
Parnell said his truck became airborne and ended up stuck in mud. When staggered up an embankment to see what he hit, the seal lifted up its head.
Public safety director Nick Hunnicutt said he had to shoot the seal, which tribal members were able to butcher for the local food pantry.
Julie Speegle, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the organization doesn’t know of any previous seal-vehicle collisions.
