The first two lines of the clue is the subject (a seal), and the second two lines refer to what the seal is doing (unable to eat because it's holding an object with its snout).
The wild speculation is fun, so by all means continue. But for me, the clue was
solved many pages ago.
Now, how do we interpret this hint? I predict a large ball (trackball?) will have to be elevated to score points, either to be placed upon on a high goal or by a robot sitting in a safe zone for the endgame points (each alliance elevates their opponent's ball for co-opertition points?).