Arctic Seals, Once Common in the Gulf of Maine, Now a Rare Sight in Belfast Harbor
A local rower found young Arctic seals hauled out on the docks this winter, a sighting Allied Whale says has grown rare.
Young Arctic seals have been hauling out on the floats in Belfast Harbor this winter, rower and registered Maine Guide Nicolle Littrell wrote in an outdoors column for the Bangor Daily News.
Littrell, who owns DoryWoman Rowing and Salty Witch Sauna in Belfast, said a friend sent her a photo in February of a white seal with black fur over its eyes and snout lying on a float near where she keeps her boat. In December, she spotted what she believed was a young harp seal, its coat mottled tan and white, on another float.
Hooded and harp seals are tied to sea ice in colder regions, but some reach the Gulf of Maine during winter, mostly between December and March. Rosie Seton of Allied Whale in Bar Harbor, which works with Marine Mammals of Maine in Brunswick on seal strandings, told Littrell the animals were once often seen in the gulf but are rare now. "Now it's mostly yearlings," Seton said. She confirmed the December seal was a yearling and said one seal likely made the many body prints Littrell later found on the snowy floats.
Littrell said the visits coincided with severe cold and harbor ice. Her last sighting of an Arctic seal there was in 2019. She sponsored a seal ice sculpture for the Belfast Ice Festival, held Feb. 28-March 1, to mark the visits.
This story was first reported by Bangor Daily News.
