the harp seal

Harp Seal After Easter

My wife and I took the week off after Easter and went back to the outer arm of Cape Cod where we got married and where we lived when our first son was born. Easter came late this year as did the arrival of spring. The day we got back was almost warm.

A small swell rolled in from the Southeast, so I was stoked to paddle out and catch some waves. I had them all to myself for almost an hour. Being April, I was not worried about sharks. I figured the water was still too cold, and I was right. I did not wear my wetsuit gloves, and my hands hurt in the ice water until they kind of went numb. 

Seals are regular companions in the surf on Cape Cod. So I was not surprised when one popped up next to me. He took a quick look, and startled to see me so close, and splashed away.  The water was clear, but he obviously was surprised when he came to the surface and turned around to see me there. When he came up again, he was about fifty feet away and he stared at me for a long time.

His big eyes asked me two questions:  "What are you?" and "What are you doing here?"

I had the same questions for him. 

Gray Seals and Harbor Seals are regulars on the Cape, but this guy was neither.

 His black face over the white band of fur around his neck gave him away.

"You’re a Harp Seal! I said silently. "You live in the Arctic, Greenland and such.  What are you doing down here?"

 I can't begin to fathom the number of seals I've seen in my life. It's up there with the number of pigeons or seagulls. But this was only the third time I had seen a Harp Seal, and only the second time I'd seen one alive. The last one I saw was floating on the surface in Penobscot Bay, Maine with a basketball bite out of its side. Maybe that one chomp was enough for the shark that day. Or maybe the seal died peacefully, of "natural" causes, and the shark was just hungry enough to hit on the carcass that didn't taste so good. Nature. So beautiful and so cold, even on an almost warm spring day.

 Among the things I thought about while waiting for the next wave was whether our encounters with animals mean anything or if they are just random moments. This morning I'm going with meaning. The Harp Seal and I shared a moment of mutual surprise when he came up for air in the same place where I was waiting for a wave. It was just another moment in another day of living on earth. Two creatures were at least somewhat out of place as we startled each other in the water, and yet in that moment we both belonged. As with everything else, there is so much that connects us in ways we can never know.