By Vladimir Brezina
We saw plenty of wildlife—dolphins, turtles, sharks, birds—last month in Florida. But no seals.
So yesterday we paddled down to Swinburne Island, where seals have never yet failed us, during the winter months. But spring is now, finally, upon us, with temperatures warming dramatically—time for the seals to return north, to their summer homes in Maine and Canada. We may have left it too late…
We paddled around Swinburne a couple of times, sat and scanned the water, waited expectantly… Nothing.
Then, just as we were about to leave, a lone seal head popped up.
The last seal of winter…
But quite apart from the seal, it was a great paddle through New York Harbor. Here are some photos (click on any photo to start slideshow):
We leave Pier 40
… and paddle down the Hudson
We pause at the green buoy just south of the Battery
… to let the Staten Island Ferry pass
A blue spring day
Across Bay Ridge Flats
We paddle down the harbor…
…and leave Manhattan behind
We pass a yellow buoy
Toward the Verrazano Narrows
Swinburne Island ahead
… and Coney Island a couple of miles across the channel
Swinbune Island scene
Ruins of building and trees
Bird island
Ships pass in Ambrose Channel
We sit and watch
Swells are coming in
Finally! The last seal of winter…
We paddle back north, toward Hoffman Island
At Hoffman Island, we raft up for some tea
Then we paddle back to the Narrows
A cruise ship is heading out
It’s the Norwegian Breakaway
A certain disparity of scale…
By Fort Wadsworth
Before we cross, we wait…
… for a container ship to pass
We paddle back toward Manhattan
Manhattan vista ahead
Hazy sun
At the yellow buoy again
Late afternoon sunshine
Sparkling silhouette
At Governors Island again, ready to cross to Manhattan
But we have to wait once more for the Staten Island Ferry
The ferry having passed by, we start across
Behind, the ferry passes the Statue
Declining sun across the Hudson
… lights up the towers of Manhattan
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
Reblogged this on Locating Frankenstein's Brain.
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Thanks!
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Oh, it’s as if he/she didn’t want you to be disappointed. :)
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Exactly! As we were waiting, I was telling Johna that we’d never failed to see seals there yet. But it was looking like this was going to be the first time—until this seal popped up. :-)
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Great post, great shot of the last seal. :-)
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Thank you!!
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Great slide show – thanks Vladimir.
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Thank you, Bruce! :-)
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Fantastic story board. Such a familiar skyline yet it’s amazing to think of you out there!
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The harbor is big, and there’s a lot out there! No wonder our friend tugster calls it “the sixth boro” :-)
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When I think of NYC, I don’t usually think of kayakers – but you all rock! Great slide show. Glad you got to see that seal. A friend of ours in DE (our home state) saw one in a small inlet there about three weeks ago. That was an uncommon sighting for that area. Hope you continue to enjoy your urban paddling adventures. I always enjoy the pictures.
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Nowadays, there are probably more kayakers than seals in New York Harbor… ;-)
Seals used to be common around New York, but then stopped coming, probably because of pollution, boat traffic, and general human disturbance. Now they are coming back, and many are seen in the Lower Bay, in particular, every winter.
But yes, this part of the coast—NY, NJ, DE—is probably the southernmost part of their range. Further south, the water is just too warm.
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I happened across a seal, up close and intimate, three days running while paddling off Pensacola Beach in 1995, seeing it/them clearly in locations several miles apart. Even watched one for over ten minutes, clearly visible above and below water from the 8th-floor terrace of our rented condo, hunting inside the closest sand bar to the beach. Then Hurricane Opel shut down paddling.
Before heading home, I visited Gulf Islands National Seashore HQ to find out which seals are found in the Gulf. The ranger grabbed a book and showed me pics of nutria, beaver, and muskrats. “Did it look like this? How about this one? What about this?” She told me there are no seals in the Gulf of Mexico. The last Caribbean Monk Seal sighting occurred in 1952.
I SAW A SEAL!!!! I put inquiries on the Net and a local zoo person said seals sometimes escape from places like the Gulfarium, which had since shut down after being damaged in Hurricane Opal. Then I got inquiries from the Monk Seal Professor at the University of Hawaii, who was VERY interested. Two years later, I got another email from Hawaii asking what more I’d learned about my seal sighting. I hadn’t even been back to Pensacola.
Some years after I related the story online in response to some Houston-area paddler’s question about sightings of alligators vs crocodiles, I googled my own name and stumbled across those three paragraphs cited word-for-word in the Menachus Guardian, the quarterly publication for Monk Seal enthusiasts worldwide. I’m apparently the foremost published author on sightings of Caribbean Monk Seals (officially declared extinct in 2008) over the past half century.
So if anyone has questions, . . . yeh, sure.
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You are the Caribbean Monk Seal expert!! :-)
It could also have been a very lost seal from up here. After all, we’ve had lost manatees up on Cape Cod…
Thanks, Bob!
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Vlad, a couple years earlier, I bicycled from mid-Manhattan to the mouth of the Harlem River hunting a manatee that was sighted as far upriver as Tappan Zee, … with no luck. Couple days later, he was sighted off Rhode Island, perhaps after short-cutting through the Harlem into Long Island Sound. IIRC, it was your 2009 visitor that ended up in a NJ creek near Bayonne and, as waters were cooling in October, the Coast Guard flew him back to Florida.
If you have a chance to paddle near San Francisco and want to see seals, I’m a big fan of Drake’s Estero in Point Reyes Natl Seashore, 50 miles north. Craft are prohibited before June 30th to protect harbor seal breeding, but July can find a huge seal colony. There’s also a good spot to wade among leopard sharks and you’ll usually see bat rays, plus some beautiful scenery. A beach near the point has elephant seals. A couple dozen harbor seal pics from last summer’s paddle . . . https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200341441962058&set=a.10200341396480921.1073741834.1334885526&type=3&theater
2011 at Drakes Estero, without seals, just scenery . . . https://www.facebook.com/bob.griebel/media_set?set=a.1917837829042.2099129.1334885526&type=3
Other Pt Reyes scenery . . . https://www.facebook.com/bob.griebel/media_set?set=a.1915980222603.2099028.1334885526&type=3
. . . . https://www.facebook.com/bob.griebel/media_set?set=a.1917579462583.2099114.1334885526&type=3
. . . . https://www.facebook.com/bob.griebel/media_set?set=a.1917369417332.2099099.1334885526&type=3
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And probably plenty of great white sharks, too… :-)
Impressive scenery and wildlife! We’ve never paddled in California. We’ll have to go!
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Beautiful shots as always.
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Thanks, Colline!
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Love the photos! I think it’s really cool to see a seal. Didn’t know they could be spotted in NY waters. I always learn something new here! Thanks! :-)
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Seals, dolphins, porpoises, whales—all are visiting New York Harbor more and more frequently. In fact, our very first post on Wind Against Current, almost three years ago, was about them… :-)
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Vlad, I just noticed something–in our post from 2011, Swinburne Island has actual buildings, but this time around, they were mostly ruins. Was that the result of Sandy?
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The substance of the building is still mostly there, but the roof has collapsed and is lying flat on the ground. And of course some of it has gone entirely. Sandy must have done a lot of that, but also other storms before and since. Each year, more is gone…
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I think that’s awesome! Thanks for the link. I’m off to read it now. :-)
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wow ! Fabulous pictures. Thank you!
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You are most welcome—thank you!!
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Attractive & intriguing yellow buoy, evidently marks Bay Ridge Flats in conjunction with A. The chart has no B. Curiosity hard to stifle as to why no photo of A. Was it too far from your course, or otherwise less photogenic?
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Presumably once upon a time there were yellow buoys A, B, and C (like in Gravesend Bay, south of the Narrows), and B has been discontinued. Actually, it would be useful to have it, for kayakers at least :-)
We don’t often go past buoy A—too far to the east.
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…..and that, my dears, puts a seal on that!
Beautiful here in Ireland today; perfect for messing about on the river.
Lovely pictures, Vladimir; my favourite:- Sparkling Silhouette.
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And probably plenty of seals there in Ireland, too? :-)
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After seeing soo many excellent shots and views from your kayaks I am finally going to attempt to try out kayaking this summer here in LA…. they have a couple of places to rent pretty close to where I live. Glad you saw a seal !
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Go for it! :-)
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Oh, that makes me SO happy to hear! Everybody should try kayaking at least once. It’s such a different way to look at the world…
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What great photos ou always take…
Thank you for sharing them with us
Take Care…You Matter…
)0(
maryrose
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You are most welcome, maryrose!! :-)
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Hooray!!
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:-) Thank you!!
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Liked going along for the adventure… Way different than the paddling out here in the Northwest! Have you considered any trips West?
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Paddling out in the Pacific Northwest—the San Juan Islands or even Vancouver—has been on the list for a long time! :-)
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I think you should “Make it so, Number One!”
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:-) Although talking to yourself is probably not a good sign…
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However, good ideas sometimes come from just that! LOL
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We Northerners await the seals!
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:-) Don’t you have them all year round? Common like the dolphins in Florida?
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