Harbor seals can easily cover 30 miles in a morning, and Mr. Forestell tells us they often cruise around Montauk Point to the ocean side, where they feed on cod, herring and squid. But their swimming prowess is even greater. The seals we observe are believed to have come from Cape Cod and southern Maine, swimming 200 to 400 miles along the coast in late autumn. Once here, they enjoy slightly warmer waters and better fishing until May, when they abandon the area and swim back to their summer homes just before the big beach crowds hit. A trip to this sparkling littoral over the next month can produce a bracing experience where the only swimmers in sight are seals.
Scientists can only theorize.
Sam Sadove, a marine biologist who works with Mr. Forestell and has been studying Long Island's seals for nearly two decades, says that the population explosion may have resulted from laws prohibiting seal hunting, a cleanup of coastal waters or some other unidentified factor. False Point, where we are seal spotting, is among the most popular onshore haul-out sites, typically attracting dozens of seals at low tide. In 1997, Mr. Sadove discovered that some seals had begun to make this area their full-time home, spending the whole year on and around the islands, breeding and raising their pups. During some downtime on the dunes, Mr. Forestell tells us more about the lives of harbor seals. Seals are mammals, which means they are warmblooded, breathe air and give birth.