Turtle Journal

Don Lewis (center), Krill Carson (right) and Her Assistant

Like many research teams, Turtle Journal admits to a certain addiction to CSI-like dramas.  Turtle Journal takes special pleasure in the sun, warmth and Caribbean color of CSI Miami … especially its heat as winter grips the Great White North.  The original CSI in Las Vegas ranks first in science and second in warmth, but still catches our attention.  The New York rendition can be a bit too close to home, not in its urban setting, but with its top coats and snow.  But nothing in that collection of shows or their look-alikes could prepare us for Friday’s ocean sunfish examination in sub-20 degree temperatures with a north-northwest wind blasting in our faces directly from the Arctic tundra.  Conditions were brutal and beyond description.  For instance, we wore three layers of gloves: surgical gloves, woolen gloves and thick work gloves.  Still, when we took five minute “thaw breaks” in the car between cuts, our fingers sizzled in frozen pain as though holding a block of dry ice in the plam of a bare hand with knuckles lying on a blazing griddle.

Male Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) @ Boathouse Beach

As reported in yesterday’s post (Another Ocean Sunfish Washes Ashore on Cape Cod), this animal had been bouncing around the bay for a while as illustrated by the breakdown in its skin.  Inside, the internal organs had largely deteriorated beyond useful data other than anatomical organization.  We did determine the gender of this ocean sunfish: male.  The one at Linnell Landing was female; so, we now have photo-documentation of both genders.  We hope to post much of this material to a special location on Turtle Journal for access by students and scientists to aid future naturalists in studying marine species, but with enough warning about the nature of these images, so that no one will be offended.

Measures 6 Feet 1.5 Inches Snout to Caudil Fin

For the record, this male measured 6 feet 1.5 inches curved measurement from caudal fin to snout and 7 feet 4 inches from tip of anal fin to tip of dorsal fin.  The female on Linnell Landing measured measured 6 feet 8 inches (curved surface) from tip of snout to trailing edge of caudal fin.  It measured 7 feet 5 inches from the tip of the dorsal (top) fin to the tip of the anal (bottom) fin.  For these two samples, the ratio of length to height was 83.5% for the male and 89.9% for the female.

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

Clinical Sample of Anatomical Examination

One objective of these necropsies is to construct a model of ocean sunfish anatomy which requires detailed and precise measurements and documentation.  While we won’t show any too candid images in these posts, the video clip above gives an example of the type of documentation we are attempting to achieve.

Strange Bedfellows Enjoy Wintry Shirttail Point

Not everyone was put off by yesterday’s cold.  A couple of local blubbery critters settled into the leeward shadow of Shirttail Point to bask on the sandy beach formed at low tide.  Since the tide was rising, they would squirm and wiggle about every couple of minutes to gain a little higher ground for a few more minutes of basking pleasure.

Life’s a Beach

When we watched this scene play out through the lens, we thought of the old Sesame Street bit about “one of these things doesn’t look like the other, one of these things doesn’t belong.”  But it didn’t seem to matter much to the participants.  Everyone was welcome to join the beach party.

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

What’s Wrong with Sunbathing in a Winter Coat?

Spend two minutes savoring life as a Wellfleet seal!

At this time of year, if something isn’t nailed down tight, then it is flotsam.  Beaches become littered with living, dead and material debris thrown about like toothpicks in blistering winds and roaring seas.  It’s a good time to be a researcher on Cape Cod, if only the thermostat could be set about 50 degrees higher.  Sigh.

Town of Wellfleet Seal(s)

Perhaps they do look a bit like Roswell aliens (You know, the grays with big eyes!), but harbor seals appear to have taken permanent winter residence in Wellfleet.  They gulp down fish until their bellies roll, which never takes too long in the rich, oozy waters of the inner harbor.  Then they search for a protected point to bask on soft, moist sand under the brilliant fall sun.  Turtle Journal wonders whether Wellfleet might consider a small adjustment to its town seal to welcome our newest residents.

Seagulls Open Negotiations for Possession of Shirttail Point

Not everyone is happy with the arrival of harbor seals in this Outer Cape hamlet.  Seagulls, who have had no real competition for the riches of Wellfleet Bay and who have had full, free and complete access to every low-tide drained sandbar and point, saw these aliens as unwanted invaders and unfair competitors.  While it’s true that cormorants also effectively hunt underwater for fish in Wellfleet Harbor, they can be rather easily intimidated by a pesky flock of seagulls who steal fish like schoolyard bullies.  Seals don’t suffer the same initimidation.

Negotiations Break Down as Harbor Seal Stands Its Ground

A sated harbor seal hauled out on the tip of Shirttail Point a little after noon.  Soon, a seagull spokesperson arrived to demand that the alien seal give up its position on the point to the native seagulls.  It didn’t take long for the seal to tire of these meddlesome negotations and to break off the talks with a sharp bark.  And so the Battle of Shirttail Point began.

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

Battle of Shirttail Point – Seals Versus Seagulls

What the seagulls lacked in size they made up for in numbers, raucous noise and annoying personalities.  Still, the seal held its ground and once reinforcements arrived, the battle turned quickly in favor of the aliens.  If you’re on the Outer Cape during low tide, you may wish to stop by the Wellfleet Pier to get a glimpse of our newest residents.  Remember to give them space.  Marine mammals are protected from human disturbance by federal rules and regulations.

Marsh Channels of Black Duck Creek

Neither fall nor winter, November is March in reverse, arriving in the guise of a gentle lamb and exiting with the fierce roar of a lion.  The 1st of November held true to the model, dawning a clear, calm 50 degrees on the Outer Cape and nudging into the mid-60s until weather vanes spun in late afternoon and a North Atlantic wind howled into Wellfleet Harbor.  On the Cape, November is the month with the least sunshine and the most overcast days.  So, wildlife and humans, feral and domestic, savored the day’s warmth and beauty.  And Turtle Journal offers reflective memory of this perfectly nuanced November day. 

Harbor Seal Basking on Mayo Beach, Wellfleet Harbor

We began our November 1st on the Wellfleet Pier as we searched again in vain for the disappearing ocean sunfish [see Exotic Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)].  When we abandoned those fruitless efforts around noon, we spotted a distant chubby blob rocking in seesaw fashion on Mayo Beach in front of the former Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater.  One of the harbor seals that had been stuffing itself with sand eels this last week (see Wellfleet Harbor Seals: “Thanks for All the Fish!”) was taking advantage of a mostly deserted beach between the empty pier and the emptier summer cottages lining the waterfront out toward Great Island to soak up November sunshine.

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Savoring the 1st of November

As an isolated resident or stray tourist wandered within eyeshot or earshot, the seal would slither into the water, stretch its muscles on a leisurely swim and then return to the beach once “all clear” registered in its brain.  With a long unobstructed view of the beach the seal was never hurried or surprised since it could see humans (and their canine companions) a half mile away.  The only startled moment came as a seagull swooped overhead, prompting the seal to slap the water with its flipper to frighten the bird away (see movie clip above).

Tide Rises to Wash Over Basking Harbor Seal

With huge tides in Wellfleet Bay, it was amusing to watch the seal start off high and dry, and then quickly get overtaken by rising waters.  And speaking of tides, we had begun our day observing low-tide drained beaches, creeks and marsh channels surrounding Lieutenant Island.  Marsh grasses have browned since September and summer critters have burrowed down for the long, harsh winter ahead in the Great White North of Cape Cod.

Shorebirds Foraging in Black Duck Creek, Lieutenant Island

For this morning, peace and blissful quiet reigned with only the cawing of distant crows and the rustling of a few shorebirds pecking through the deeply carved peat channels of one of the richest salt marsh systems in the Northeast.  Minnows galore circled shallow tidal pools in large schools, impatiently awaiting the return of flood tide to abet their escape from these predatory birds.

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

Lieutenant Island Tidal Flats at Low Tide

As tide approaches dead low, the last trickles of water zigzag to the bay, etching pathways through mud and sand, and cascading into rivulets that gurgle to the receding sea.  The video clip offers a minute of grateful reflection on a perfect November day.

Satisfied Seagull

We close this blog entry with a comment from one of our well-nourished feathered philosophers, “Happy November!”

Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) in Wellfleet

The Turtle Journal team ventured to Wellfleet Harbor on Sunday, October 26th, to celebrate one of the last perfect days of autumn.  Banks of wispy fog floated like ghostly sheets across the islands of Wellfleet Bay, while the harbor baked in glaring sun under azure skies.  We watched as Great Island vanished into whiteness, then reappeared in stunning clarity.  Temperatures rose into the mid-60s in sunshine and then dipped instantly into the 40s when drenched in icy fog.  On a brief visit to Lieutenant Island as we left for home, we watched fiddler crabs so affected by plunging temperatures that they couldn’t keep their balance and tumbled around like circus clowns.  (Watch for a posting of this phenomenon soon.)

Inner Wellfleet Harbor East of Shirttail Point Pier

The day showed Wellfleet Harbor at its exquisite best … not just for mere humans, but for sealife that calls the Outer Cape home, too.  As we arrived the tide was dropping quickly from mid to low.  Streams of small fish such as sand eels flooded the inner harbor among the floating small boat docks.  The harbor was filled with seagulls everywhere.  Mostly they rested on pilings, on boats, on docks, on water, barely moving a muscle as they warmed in the sunshine.  Between these long stretches of laziness they would screech into action whenever a cormorant snagged a fish.  They lunged at the lucky cormorant, squealing, “Mine, mine, mine,” as depicted in Finding Nemo. 

Two Harbor Seals Swim Among the Floating Docks

Watching the ebb and flow of the seagulls, we noticed that not all cormorants were cormorants.  Seals!  We were shocked to find three harbor seals fishing along the docks.  They, too, would sprint after schools of fish, scoff down as many as they could consume in one spurt of activity, then retire to the rocky seawall or the sloping salt marsh banks to bask for a few minutes … before resuming the hunt.

NEVER disturb a marine mammal.  Seals have both excellent eyesight and hearing.  Be respectful and observe marine mammals from a distance, so as not to interfere.  Use a telephoto lens for photography and keep quiet.  If you find an injured marine mammal in the Cape Cod area, call the 24/7 stranding hotline at 508-743-9548.  Do not approach the animal without appropriate authorization.  If you have trouble reaching someone, you can can always call the Turtle Journal 24/7 hotline at 508-274-5108.

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

Harbor Seals Fishing, Playing and Basking in Wellfleet Harbor

Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) are small marine mammals mostly in the 3 to 4 foot range.  They love fish, including sand eels (sand lances), herring, flounder, rock fish, but they’ll settle for squid or crustaceans or mollusks.  They love to eat, and eat, and eat.  Adult seals consume 5% to 6% of their body weight each and every day.  So, when seals find a plentiful source of delicious fish, they’ll stick around.  We saw these same seals the next day, Monday, waiting for the tide to drop low enough to simplify the hunt.

Harbor Seal Hauling Out on the Rocky Seawall

Predators of harbor seals include sharks.  (You don’t think that blue shark, see Yikes! 11-Foot Blue Shark in Wellfleet Bay, could have been after these cute critters, do you?)  As pups they are preyed upon by coyotes, foxes and large birds.  Harbor seals favor estuarine shallows, including sand bars, rock jetties, rocky reefs and mud flats.  Locally, we expect to find them across Wellfleet Bay at Jeremy Point and along Monomoy Island in Chatham.

They like to haul out to rest, to bask, to mate, to nurse, to molt and to digest.  Our three critters picked options 1, 2 and 6 (rest, bask and digest).  But one of our seals had an additional reason to haul out, and not a good one.

Harbor Seals in Busy Boating Area

While the inner harbor seems idyllic for these small mammals, the amount of boat engine traffic is high at this time of year as owners go out for their final cruise around the bay and motor over to the haul-out ramp to remove their boats for the winter.  One of the seals, the smallest one, showed a propeller gash on its back, very raw and quite fresh. 

Small Harbor Seal with Injury from Propeller Strike

This seal fished and swam with the others, but appeared to tire more quickly and hauled out more frequently.  The Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary was informed of the injured animal and they reported that the Cape Cod Mammal Stranding Network had been informed of its injury.  When we came back to Wellfleet Harbor on Monday, we saw the two larger, healthy seals swimming around and waiting for the tide to drop, but we did not detect the smaller, injured animal.  Admittedly, we did not stay long enough on the second day for a comprehensive and definitive search.

We did locate a beached ocean sunfish (Mola mola), perhaps 3.5 to 4 feet in diameter at the tip of Shirttail Point.  (Watch for a future posting.)

Seagull with Stolen Fish

Not only the seals got their fill of fish.  Cormorants fished along side the seals and caught their share.  And seagulls hung around the edges to steal some portion of the catch.  Since we spotted not a single thin seagulls, the Turtle Team assesses that they’re doing just fine, thank you. 

Click Here to View Video in High Quality

Well-Fed Seagulls in Wellfleet Harbor

All in all, a marvelous adventure to Wellfleet Harbor. Driving away from the pier at Shirttail Point, we could swear that we heard the seagulls shrieking and the seals barking, “So long and thanks for all the fish.”  We waved, “You’re most welcome.”

Taking water temperatures off Turtle Point this morning, I also checked on Chubby.  At first I thought she had left, since I couldn’t spot her from the bearberry hill overlook, and I so noted in my log.  But in the distant tidal flats I saw two large red objects which seemed suspicious.  I decided to investigate.

After a plodding, slogging, serpentine trek through the mud flats, I discovered these objects were bags filled with oysters collected from Fresh Brook.

But on the way back to the shoreline, I nearly tripped over Chubby as she lay still and hidden in a marsh hollow.

She was alert enough to react to my presence, but she continued wheezing and her breaths were labored.  I also saw slight traces of dried blood on the rim of her nostrils.