Photos: Seal On Brighton Beach
It was just a month ago that a seal was spotted on the docks of Miramar Yacht Club, and now a reader said another one took to the shores of Brighton Beach on Sunday. Sure, it’s not the first time some under-dressed blubbery mammal covered in hair took in some rays on the sands of Brighton Beach, but this guy’s a lot cuter than most. Apparently, the unhealthy looking thing wedged in his back is a GPS device meant to track him. And when he showed up on the beach, reader Katerina M. said he looked ill, and calls to 911, 311 the aquarium and others yielded no real response. Katerina also claims some fishermen were catching fish with dynamite, possibly disorienting him, which we really hope is not true. Regardless, after four hours the seal took to the waters again.
[UPDATE via Gothamist]: Riverhead tells Gothamist, “This is a male, yearling, harp seal which was initially observed at Hither Hills, East Hampton on 2/24/11. The animal was assessed as healthy and determined to be a release candidate. He has been tracked offshore to Hudson canyon over the last three weeks and has moved along the NJ coast. It has recently been observed on the south shore of LI in Jamaica Bay. The Riverhead Foundation received a call about this animal on the beach (Breezy Point) but it returned to the water before our biologist arriving on scene. There were no indications of injury noted in the photographs.
These animals are protected under the marine mammal protection act and the public is required to stay at least 50 yards away from a marine mammal. If you see a seal, whale, dolphin or sea turtle please call our Hotline (631) 369-9829.”
On Sunday morning, March 20th, around 10am, I got a call from my mother, who was jogging on the beach. She said “You have to find out who we can call, because I just found an unwell baby lying on the beach!”. I said “Are you kidding me? Call 911!”, and she said “They won’t care!”. It turned out she was talking about a baby seal she had discovered lying amongst the rocks at the end of Coney Island avenue.
She was around 4 feet long, sometimes moving about, other times laying limply between the rocks, seeming weak or unwell, with no visible injuries (except for the minor scrapes she got on her back flippers from crawling around on the rocks).
Alina (another passerby) and I stayed with the seal for the next 4 hours or so. We fended off passers-by and their unleashed dogs, as their approach (most of them didn’t even notice the seal because it blended into the rocks) scared her. We called everyone we could think of – 911 hang up several times, 311 gave us a non-functioning phone number to call, local precinct, NY1, News 12… Two staff from the aquarium, 5 minutes’ ride away, showed up after about 4 hours (after many calls and threats to come by cab to the aquarium with seal in hand from us), claiming they had no appropriate staff on site, and they couldn’t do anything as seals were protected to such an extent that one could end up in prison for up to 10 years for touching one. That was disappointing – they could at least have showed up earlier to survey the situation. The closest specialists authorized to handle seals were at the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation (the far end of Long Island). One of their staff had almost reached us, when the seal headed towards the water and was swept away by a wave (or swam into it?).
I don’t have an accurate account of the seal’s departure into the sea because I had to leave the scene right before it happened for an out of town trip. News 12 apparently got it on tape and aired it on Sunday, along with an interview with Alina.
The staff from the Riverhead Foundation told us that it is a common occurrence for seals to come out to sun themselves on the rocks, and that this is a harp seal. From what I understood, the GPS on her back was not theirs (they said their GPS trackers have yellow on them). I will have more information from Riverhead once I send them the photos.
Some local women said that there were fishermen who were collecting fish via throwing dynamite into the water and waiting for the dead fish to float up that morning or the night before. Perhaps the seal was deafened and disoriented by the sound, causing it to emerge in an unfamiliar area,
Coincidentally enough, this week’s issue of the New Yorker has a very interesting article titled “Back to the Harbor: Seals return to New York City” I can send you the full article later, if you’re interested. Apparently, their population is coming back because of the strict protection laws of the last few decades. I had no idea that they are even native to our waters!