March 07, 2002 - The sad fate of stranded sealsMarch 7, 2002 • The Suffolk Times • SA
ie sad fate
of stranded seals
MY SON TOOK A WALK along the
Sound last week using the idea of two
cars, driving one to the destination
and leaving it there and then driving
the other to the starting point. This
eliminates your having to double back
to where you started. The key to any
walk using this method is to pick the
direction you
FOCUS Falk always with
the wind at your
ON back. It makes
NATURE your walk a
pleasant one
by Paul rather than hav-
Stoutenburgh ing to buck the
wind all the way.
This one -way walk works well at
many of the roads going to the Sound
between Mattituck and Orient Point.
The reason I mention my son's walk
along the Sound is because he came
across a large dead seal. It was an
unusual, spotted, gray - colored one
that was in perfect condition. Why it
had died no one knows as yet.
Generally speaking seals or, as a mat-
ter of fact, most wild animals don't die
of old age. What usually happens is as
the animal slows down because of age
or sickness, it becomes vulnerable and
becomes just another meal for some
hungry predator.
The Riverhead Foundation for
Marine Research and Preservation
was notified of the dead seal and two
volunteers were quickly sent to the
location to check out the situation.
Because of its size, there was some
speculation the seal might be a gray
photo b
During the winter we often see harbor seals basking on rocks along
shore. They come in varied colors of light gray, tan, brown to almost white.
The foundation
has been over -
whelmed with
seals in the
last few weeks.
seal, a rarer visitor from the north
than our common harbor seal. The
people from the Foundation wanted
to bring the seal back to- their labora-
tory for examination, but it was just
too big and too far away from an eas}
access, so it was decided that it would
be best to do an autopsy right on the
beach and bury the seal there.
I had wanted to get to see the seal
on the Sound for myself, but it was
too far up the stony beach for me to
walk there with my stainless -steel
knees. As I waited for others to get
back I saw something out in the
Sound. It looked like four geese of
some sort, but they were brownish in
color, and so when I put my binocu-
lars on them I was amazed to see four
deer swimming in circles about a
thousand feet off shore.
Here we go again. What were they
doing out in the Sound?
Some people say they
swam from Connecticut.
This I doubt. What I real-
ly think happened was
that they again were
spooked into the water
by dogs and as they swam
along the shore they
came to where people
were and didn't want to come ashore,
so they just milled about. Sure
enough, as we watched for a half hour
or more, they finally came ashore way
down the beach. But I have never
seen four deer swimming in the Sound
before. Must be spring fever.
Normally the people from the
marine foundation would have more
time and be able to get to a dead seal
sooner for inspection, but they have
been overwhelmed with seals in the
last few weeks: Three weeks ago they
had only two seals and now there are
13. They had nine come in iust last
:k. Most of them were still alive
needed much more attention than
dead one on the Sound. They also
reports of two other dead seals.
med to me unusual that so many
s would turn up in such a short
I t They also had a dolphin that they
icked up alive, but after much work
nd many late hours into the night
ying to save it, it passed away. Could
be the warm weather? Pollution?
Or just better coverage of our area?
Surely they will be studying all of
these possibilities in the days ahead as
they take care of and bring all those
they have back to health. When they
have things caught up, they will get
down to check on "our" seal and then
we'll know more about it.
This time of the year usually brings
seals to our rocky Sound shores.
Often we see them on rocks warming
up. They take the shape of a fat
sausage, often with both ends pointing
up. They don't trust man at all, for the
slightest approach finds them slipping
back into the water. Soon they pop up
nearby, staring at you with those big
black eyes. They are very curious
when they're in the water and will
often come quite close to boats. The
head of one swimming in the water,
seen from shore, takes on the appear-
ance of a dog.
Adult males are about six feet long
compared to about five feet for an
ult female. Maximum weight is
about 250 pounds. The
color of the harbor seal is
quite varied, from a light
gray to tan to brown to
almost white.
One often wonders
what the seals feed on
during the winter. I guess
you'd ,call them oppor-
tunists, for thev eat a wide
range of marine life, such as crus-
taceans and small fish. It's during the
high tides that they fish and it's during
the low tides that their resting rocks
are out of the water and make the per-
fect platform for them to bask on.
Harbor seals cover a wide range of
territory, from the Scandinavian coun-
tries south to Spain in the eastern
Atlantic, from Greenland down the
coast of Maine in the western
Atlantic, plus they are also found in
the Pacific.
Today harbor seals are doing quite
well, but years ago fishermen cursed,
and shot, every seal they saw. There
was even a bounty of $1 put on every
seal killed at that time. The reason
was that they thought the seals were
depleting the fish population. It got so
bad that the harbor seal almost
became extinct in Maine.
After much controversy and hard
feelings and scientific study, the gov-
ernment stepped in and passed the
Federal Marine Mammal Protection
Act that stopped the taking of seals
except with a special permit which, by
the way, was very restrictive. Today it
is always a treat to discover a seal
basking on a rock along our shore-
front. Perhaps in their recovery,
there's hope for all of us.
P.S. If you come across a stranded
seal, sea turtle, dolphin or whale, call
the foundation's 24 -hour hotline at