Character Analysis
Papa Seal
Sea Catch is Kotick's father, and he represents the "old guard" of the seals. He's a "huge grey fur-seal" with "wicked dog-teeth" (7.3). He's not a lover, he's a fighter, "scarred all over" (7.3) with marks. But not because he's a bad fighter—he's scarred because he's a good one, who fights a lot, and always wins.
He has honor, abiding by the "Rules of the Beach" (7.4), and never chases wounded seals. He's married to Matkah, Kotick's mother, and, like Mother and Father Wolf, the two abide by traditional gender roles. Sea Catch does the fighting, Matkah does the rearing of children and tut-tuts over the barbarism of men.
However, unlike his son, Sea Catch is fine with the status quo of a few dozen seals getting clubbed to death every now and then. He tells his son, "You will never be able to stop the killing" (7.62). And the only way to change his mind is through physical strength, the language he speaks best. When Kotick beats up all the other seals, only then does Sea Catch listen to his son.