'Don't think they even knew kayaks are really scary to seals.'
Photo by Gale McCullough.
Used by permission.
It is often a surprise to people just learning about harbor seals that contrary to their expectations a paddled canoe or kayak seems to frighten them more than a motorized boat. Notice the many heads in the water.
While humans have threatened them historically from both kinds of watercraft, the photographer comments that 'a kayak or canoe has to be tracked visually by seals (who are apparently nearsighted) while they can keep tabs on a motor audially.'
'There were 30 seals on that rock,' she continues. 'They all poured into the water when the kayaks were within 200 yards.'
'Oooo look!'
Photo by Gale McCullough.
Used by permission.
Most people agree that nothing's cuter than a harbor seal looking up at you with those big, dark eyes wide open. In fear. Unless, of course, you're in a rescue/rehab facility and you're bringing lunch. That's a different look. And in that situation you're not likely to run into them with your propeller.
'This picture was taken just before the seals fled,' the photographer reports.
'There are animals living in the ocean, even if you don't always see them.'
Photo by Gale McCullough.
Harbor seals in Maine have abandoned the beaches often used elsewhere for resting and pupping, finding refuge instead on inaccessible rocks and ledges.
Almost inaccessible, that is. And although they seem to have become more tolerant of noisy, high-velocity watercraft which appear to be moving past, the 'heads up' seen here is one standard for measuring disturbance in other parts of the harbor seal range.
The photographer reminds us that in Maine 'there was a bounty on seals until the late 1960s and it wasn't until the Marine Mammal Protection Act came into effect that it was illegal to kill them.'