Saturday April 27, 2024 - "The wind forecasters completely missed the mark this afternoon, and the seals were clearly not pleased with south 15+ mph wind. We did not see one single seal, hauled-out or swimming, in the hour we spent on the beach. ... we almost always see some swimming seals, even on days when the haul-out count is reported as zero". We posted this statement two weeks ago, and had exactly the same experience today. The forecast west wind never materialized and this Spring the seals are showing no love for south wind, afternoon low tide days, which they have generally tolerated fairly well in the past.

Water temperatures at Newport hit the 50 degree benchmark last week, and with four out of the past five seal watches being less than stellar it's time for us to turn our attention to other activities. We were disappointed that April did not prove to be a better month for seal observation, but the weather and tide never aligned to provide truly favorable conditions. The recent occurrence of southerly winds when westerly wind is forecast is curious and not something we have noted before in our 20-plus years of weather observations. We hope this pattern does not persist into the summer when the weather fires up in the tropics; if it does, we fear an unwelcome visit from a hurricane is more likely.
 
Overall, we enjoyed a great season of seal observation and we are grateful for all the joy that the seals, the seal watchers, and the natural wonders of Narragansett bay bring to our life. It has been our immense good fortune to have been blessed by the inspiration and gifts that mindful nature observation provides to us, and Rome point is a special place where we get to share this blessing with other people. Thanks to everyone who ventures here and has a kind word to offer whenever we meet on the Rome Point shore. Have a wonderful summer and Good Luck to All!

We took a look at our past seal counts today, 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 have to go back to spring 2018 to see multiple consecutive counts of greater than 150 seals. We were aware that the past several seasons we have been seeing fewer seals than we have in years past, and some of that can be accounted for considering the lower number of observations that we made during the Covid years of 2020 and 2021. Spring 2022 and 2023 were very busy years for our small business which resulted in less free time for seal watching during those spring seasons, which is a factor that makes drawing conclusions from our observation records more uncertain. Still, we would assert that there are not as many seals making there 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.