Lg.Is, NY CRESLI Seal Walk at Montauk Point State Park!

About the seal walk:

CRESLI seal walks will take place between November and May. Please note that weather will play a significant role in determining the seal walk schedule. Please call CRESLI at (631) 244-3352 for schedule changes and cancellations. CRESLI seal walks will depart from area near the bathrooms in the main parking lot at Montauk Point State Park. The walks are approximately 3 miles round trip and take about 3 hours. Meeting times are 15 minutes prior to departure. These beach walks are suitable for children.

Please be prepared for the weather, i.e., wear warm clothing (outerwear should be in muted colors) in layers. Hats, gloves, warm waterproof shoes, and water are also recommended, as are cameras and binoculars. For those without waterproof shoes, an additional dry pair of shoes and socks (for the ride home) would be beneficial.
A voluntary contribution of $5.00 per person will help to support CRESLI's ongoing seal research programs.

A seal walk is pretty self explanatory. You walk on the beaches at Montauk State Park and look at seals! There were 16-20 harbor seals spotted at the last seal walk (1/9/05 at 10:30 AM). Last season each seal walk at Montauk Point had at least 4 seals spotted (11/22/03 at 9:30 AM) to the maximum amount of 125 harbor seals (82 on rocks, 43 in water) and 2 grey seals on 1/3/04 at 9:30 AM. See this website for more information on seals spotted during previous seasons.

Information on Long Island's Seals:

Although five species of seal can be found on Long Island's shores, only the harbor seal is common on Long Island. Anecdotal stories suggest that harbor seals were quite abundant on Long Island up to the mid 1900's. Grey seals used to be uncommon winter visitors, but now are regularly seen in small numbers, with pups often stranding in March and April. Until recently Arctic species such as harp and hooded seals rarely ventured south of northern Maine. Now more of these seals are stranding on Long Island's beaches every year. In the 1994-5 season the number of stranded harp seals actually exceeded harbor seals. In addition, a small number of ringed seals, another Arctic species, have stranded here.
In the early 1980's harbor seals were seen in small numbers mainly on remote beaches and islands. Estimates of the total winter population were thought to be several hundred with less than 15 strandings each year. In following years more and more sightings were reported and strandings rose dramatically, with well over 100 seals stranded each year. In 1995 there were 157 strandings! The elimination of seal hunting in the continental US and much of Canada may be a factor in the increase of seal populations. Population increases north of Long Island may mean that these animals are extending their range southward to Long Island.

The seal walks are held on:
Saturday, 02/05/05 9:00 AM
Sunday, 02/20/05 12:00 PM
Sunday, 03/06/05 9:00 AM
Saturday, 03/19/05 9:00 AM
Saturday, 04/02/05 8:00 AM
Sunday, 04/17/05 9:00 AM
Sunday, 05/15/05 8:00 AM
Sunday, 05/22/05 12:00 PM
Any of those dates are good for me so far!

For more information on these walks visit the 2004/2005 CRESLI Seal Walks at Montauk Point State Park website.

For more information on CRESLI (Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island, Inc.) visit their website.

 

February works better for me (and probably Billy), because March it starts to get real busy for us, and stays that way until... well, I won't know until I have the actual U2 tour dates.

 

I agree with February being our best bet. Dana, how about proposing a specific date? We'll see how it goes from there.