Tuesday 12/27/22  41 seals hauled out, 34 degrees, W to SW 5 to 10, clear, 1530. 4 seals on far rock for 65 seals total.

Another good seal day for this holiday week, good seals, good seal watching families, and good light for the scope. We stayed late into the afternoon to watch large, late-arriving seals lumber onto barely exposed rocks. It seems that certain large seals have gotten into the habit of showing up late in the ebb tide and taking up stations on rocks that are slightly submerged. These seals are content to rest while still in shallow water, as opposed to high and dry, as long as wind driven waves do not irritate them. This is just one of the subtle behavior changes that we have noticed after observing the seals for over 20 years. Some seals always behaved this way on occasion, but more seals are definitely doing this more frequently now, and we paused to speculate about what factors may be influencing the behavior pattern shifts that, while subtle, are significant enough to have come to our attention. The behavior described is only one example of the ways seal behavior, as well as other aspects of the natural environment at Rome Point, is gradually changing as the years pass.