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Seal Observation Journal
Saturday March 29, 2025 Really good seal watching again yesterday, but interestingly the seals, as well as the other forest creatures, were in a mellow mood despite fairly nice weather. The woods were unusually still and quiet for a day with a cool west wind, and this seemed to be reflected in more subdued seal behavior this morning as well. No matter through, it was still a great seal day with excellent light for the scope and we were happy to enjoy our seal walk with several appreciative seal seeking groups.
We are more optimistic about the weekend weather now, as NOAA has changed the forecast description from "tricky" to "quite tricky", which means they do not know WTF to predict for specific regions within the NE forecast area. If the current conditions hold and there is no rain on the radar, we will be on the beach today extra early (for a 2pm low tide) at 10:30. The south wind is the wild card today, too much of that at haul-out time and it will be no go for the seals. We use the current wind report at Quonset State Airport and the Accuweather radar app to make last minute calls on the seal situation, but with seal watching being stupendous recently, we will err on the side of "let's check it out" if we get a couple of dry hours with reasonable wind.
This time of year it is worth the effort to try to be on the beach two to three hours before low tide, as the haul-out time is when the seals are usually most active. In addition, it is a good practice to arrive early in the seals' rest cycle to stay a step ahead of marauding watercraft, which can spoil a seal watch by chasing the seals from the area. When the seal count at Rome Point exceeds the 100 seal benchmark, the haul-out time seal show rivals almost any wild animal observation you are likely to see anywhere in North America. The big seal show has come to town now, and good days should not be taken for granted.
We took a look at our past
seal counts back in April 2024, as we were curious
when we had last seen over 150 seals on the rocks at
Rome Point. It turns out that March 27, 2021 was the
last seal count that exceeded the 150 seal
benchmark, and we had to go back to spring 2018 to
see multiple consecutive counts of greater than 150
seals. We would assert that there are
not as many harbor seals making their winter home in
Narragansett Bay as there were 10 years ago, for reasons
that we continue to ponder as our seal counts gradually
become slightly lower each season.
The links below connect to short
seal videos we posted on YouTube for your seal watching
amusement. Seal Pup Follies was recorded in Maine
in June 2012 and Linebelly Rising is a short clip
showing the former Rome Point kingpin climbing to the
top of his favorite pointy rock.
Video Links:
Tail Biting Jumps March 2020
Seal
Action March 2013
Linebelly
Rising
Big Seal Day 2011
Seal
Pup Follies
Rome Point Seals 2011