Hoover the Talking Harbor Seal

In order to truly join an institution one must learn its lore. When people go to my Alma Mater, Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington they learn the lore of where (the great) Adam West drank martinis. When people go to Harvard they learn where T.S. Elliot punched out other faculty members. When people go to Yale they learn where the Skull and Bones has killed and buried first-years.

And when people come to the Aquarium they learn other legends. I've already alluded to the cat burgling Octopus. But there is a more important animal in the ledgers of Aquarium exhibits. That animal is Hoover the Talking Seal.

From the New Yorker, January 3, 1983:

Hoover talks in a deep, friendly raspy bass voice that has the flattened "a"s of New England; what he says really sounds like "Hoo-vuh," not "Hoover," and like "How-wah-yah" and "come ovuh heah." He also says "Hello, dere," and he has a distinct laugh—"heh-heh-heh-heh." Several scientists have likened his voice to that of a wino, but when we first heard him we thought he sounded more like a cheerful retired Boston cabdriver.

Hoover came to the Aquarium in 1971. The full story is here. But to sum up: An orphaned seal is taken in by a farm family, fed in a bathtub and in the back pond for four months and then given to the Aquarium. However, while he was being hand raised the family notice that Hoover was mimicking their vocalizations. This carried over into the Aquarium and was noticed by the marine mammal trainers and several scientists. A legend was born.

Is it merited? Perhaps. Listen for yourself: