Coming up, Jonathan meets some adorable undersea puppydogs!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
It’s summer in Gloucester, Massachusetts and I’m boarding the dive boat Down Under
with Captain Fran.
We shove off from the dock and make our way out of Gloucester harbor.
Then we set a course north.
We’re heading to the Isles-of-Shoals, a small group of islands at the border of New
Hampshire and Maine in the northeastern United States.
It takes about an hour to cruise north, as we take in the beautiful New England coastline.
Finally we reach Jimmie’s Ledge at Duck Island, and drop anchor in shallow water.
From all directions, curious seals come to the boat to have a look.
We’ll throw the anchor in, we don’t want to scare them.
Like aquatic dogs, seals have a natural curiosity.
But they are also cautious, and they have good reason to be.
Seals used to be extremely plentiful on the shores of New England.
So plentiful that fishermen felt they were a nuisance…eating way too many fish.
As more and more fishing boats took to the waters, and the catches of haddock, flounder
and codfish began to decline, the fishermen blamed the seals.
All over New England, a seal hunt began, just to reduce their numbers.
Massachusetts even issued a bounty system.
They actually paid people to go out and kill seals.
Not for meat or hides or oil.
Just to get rid of them.
By the time seals finally got protection under the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1973,
they were virtually gone from New England.
The Gray seal, formerly known to breed as far south as Cape Cod, had been virtually
exterminated from U.S. waters, with only small populations surviving in eastern Canada.
Seals were also the primary food of apex predators like the Great White shark.
Once there were no more seals, there were no more sharks—probably a blessing for fishermen
at the time, who were terrified of sharks.
Now, after more than 40 years of protection, seals in New England have made a fantastic
comeback.
Here at the Isles-of-Shoals, Gray seals pop their heads above water all around the boat.
And this season’s generation of adolescents--born only 6 to 7 months ago--are playful and curious.
As the summer water in New England is in the mid-60s, I don’t need a drysuit.
My 7mm full wetsuit should be more than enough protection.
Here we go, OK.
I drop into the green water, and head to the bottom, barely 20 feet below the boat.
The key to interacting with a seal is to pique its curiosity so it wants to come and check
you out.
Seals are way too fast to chase, and that’s illegal.
They can hear you coming a hundred yards away, so you can’t sneak up on them either.
They are masters of this environment.
To the seals, Cameraman Tim and I are bumbling, noisy, flailing bubble-blowers.
But because we are so utterly ridiculous underwater, the seals actually find us interesting.
So my trick is to look like I’m doing something really cool.
Something so interesting in fact that a seal just has to come check it out.
Since summer in New England means murky plankton-filled water, the visibility is not that great.
So the seals have to come pretty close to see what we are doing.
Only the adolescents are curious.
The adults have much more important things to do.
First they make quick passes to check us out.
But it doesn’t take long for one of the young seals to muster the courage to come
over for a close look at me.
He is first interested in my fins.
But once he feels my soft neoprene wetsuit, he wants to know more.
Seals investigate with their mouths.
I’m not worried about being bitten.
This is just his way of learning.
Meanwhile another seal is checking out Cameraman Tim, doing pretty much the same thing.
Like undersea puppydogs, the seals are curious and completely non-aggressive.
Their
curiosity extends to things beyond divers.
A lobster trap on the sea floor has a rope that leads up to a buoy on the surface.
The seals play endlessly with the rope.
Many times I fear that this young seal will become entangled and need to be rescued.
Yet time after time she manages to un-entangle herself and swim away.
Down at the bottom of a gulley where this lobster trap is sitting, the water is cold.
Cold enough that I wish I had worn my drysuit.
It’s freezing!
Even though I’m shivering, I hang in there a little longer because the seals are so fun
to watch.
But eventually, I get low on air and it’s time to head up.
Whew!
The surface water is so nice and warm—63 degrees, perfect for my 7 mil wetsuit, but
the seals are hanging out on the bottom, 40 feet down, and it’s 48 degrees down there!
I was freezing my butt off!
But the seals were awesome!
Six months later, it’s winter in New England and I have just arrived on the quaint sleepy
island of Nantucket.
Nantucket is a small island in Masssachusetts, south of Cape Cod.
Off the west end of Nantucket is an even smaller island, called Muskeget.
This tiny uninhabited and privately-owned island happens to be home to the southernmost
breeding colony of Gray Seals.
I have been invited to join a team of researchers working with Gray Seals at Muskeget Island.
We board a couple small boats and head out on a perfect, calm day.
It’s bitterly cold.
The surface of the ocean actually has ice forming on it.
But the sun is shining and it’s not too windy.
Only perfectly calm conditions allow reaching Muskeget at this time of the year.
I would much rather be doing this in the summer, but alas, Gray seals give birth to their pups
in the middle of the harshest time of year.
Within 30 minutes, our team reaches the sandy shore of Muskeget.
We have permission from the island owner to go ashore.
And the team has permits from NOAA to approach the seals for their research.
Even I had to get a special permit to join them.
The seals like to come here to have their pups because it’s secluded and safe.
They give birth in the winter because the water is too cold for sharks.
Everywhere I look there are moms nursing their pups.
The pups are pretty much the cutest animals you will ever see--little white fuzzballs
laying helplessly on the sand.
While the pup is snoozing, his mom might wander off to socialize.
If she doesn’t come back soon enough, he cries for her.
But when she does finally come back, its time for some milk.
A pup receives only three weeks of care from its mother, and that’s it.
Then the pup is on its own.
It will shed its baby fur and learn to catch fish.
To accomplish that, Gray seal pups feast on the richest milk in the world—up to 60%
fat!
Compare that to cow’s milk , which is under 4% fat.
Some of them don’t make it.
The big males, up to 800 pounds, come here to mate.
And they are not patient.
On the beach, a female is protecting her pup.
But a pair of males are waiting for a good time to make a move.
The larger male tries to sneak up to her.
But she is having none of it.
She is not ready to mate until her pup is weaned.
Being patient is difficult.
As another hopeful male looks on, the pair of males begins to fight.
If they can’t have the female, they can at least figure out who is more likely to
get her.
The vanquished has learned his lesson.
A few hours later, the big bull has found a different female who seems a little more
receptive.
And again, another bull is watching, hoping to steal her away.
He has little chance, given how charming and persuasive the larger bull is.
Nobody will ever accuse seals of being very romantic.
Eventually the female succumbs to his charms.
Males are known to crush the pups while trying to mate with a female.
Most pups learn quickly to stay out of the way.
In the more than 40 years since seal hunting stopped in New England, Gray seal populations
have undertaken a slow recovery.
But now, with more and more females producing a new pup every year, the numbers of seals
are really starting to climb.
Mike Jech, Jennifer Johnson and Beth Josephson from NOAA are trying to learn about the rate
of population growth.
They are doing annual aerial surveys to count pups using a drone.
By flying up the beach and taking pictures at regular intervals with a high resolution
camera, they can get a good assessment each year of the growth in the population.
What they have learned is that the seals are on the rebound.
But it’s not necessarily good news for everyone.
Private pilot Aaron Knight shot some video from his airplane that illustrates the issue.
Seals are taking over Cape Cod beaches.
People are starting to worry about the impact on the beaches, the fish populations and something
you might not expect: Great White Sharks.
The recovery of the seals has contributed to the recovery of their greatest predator.
But while its possible this could lead to a shark attack at one of the beaches, the
sharks seem to be focused very specifically on eating seals.
Some local residents say that the sharks are not eating enough seals to control the population,
and the seals are becoming a big problem.
Do the seals need to lose their protected status?
That is a battle which is almost certainly coming.
But the good news is that Gray seals are back.
A species which had almost vanished from the United States has recovered, thanks to more
than 40 years of protection.
For anyone who has ever had the chance to see a fluffy Gray seal pup or scuba dive with
an inquisitive and playful adolescent, this can be nothing but great news.
Let’s face it, there is something wonderful about an animal so adorable and curious as
a Gray seal.