My View of Life on the Dock
Images: Jan. 28, 2024, 9:30 A.M. A seal that’s washed up dead on Long Beach was reported to authorities. Sick or dead marine wildlife can pose risks. Despite advice to keep a distance from beached seals, dead or alive, people and pets touched this one. Dogs sniffed, marked, chewed, dug and climbed atop the body. In its current position at this particular tide, the cause of death is undetermined and no visible wounds are apparent. High tide may cover and move the seal out or re-beach it again./
On a gray day the tide revealed a dead adult seal about 6 feet long and weighing hundreds of pounds on the Gloucester side of Long Beach near Cape Ann Motor Inn. (I have not seen a dead adult seal on this beach in 12 years.) Unlike dead seal pups torn open and attracting gulls, there are no visible markings on its exposed sides and the body remains undisturbed. There is one faint thin red line in the sand.
Found at the end of Grapevine Road on the backshore (03/28/18)
Gray vistas spanned the beat of life and death in nature and prompted basic questions about shelter and what do you think happened here? We stepped over a seagull’s still and headless body and a fury of feathers. Seagulls were fighting over the remains of a sting ray we thought was a horseshoe crab. They didn’t want to see the dead seal. Was it the same seal we saw resting yesterday, the seal my son was relieved to report he saw dip back into the sea? Maybe, I said. A passerby asked if I reported it to a wildlife agency. Enough nature for one morning, my sons turned home to shoot hoops. We heard the sweet sounds from piping plovers, someone raking seaweed, and joyous chatter from a family of 4 swimming before the coming storm.
Good Morning Gloucester 