Dan's Papers - October 5, 2007

"We all know what could happen, right?" Rob DiGiovanni, the Founder and Director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation said ominously as he grasped the door of the enormous crate. "And what could happen, probably will......"

With this warning, Rob and his team surrounded the crate with four-by-six-foot red wooden shields and brandished poles, nets and elbow-length protective gloves to defend them from the 770-pound potentially vicious animal waiting to break free of his specially constructed container.

Although the Foundation had released many seals into the Shinnecock Inlet since their founding in 1996, never before had they dealt with a creature as potentially dangerous as Thor, a grey seal who had washed ashore in New Jersey as a malnourished, 100-pound pup months before. After consuming hundreds of pounds of fish each day at the Foundation in preparation for his release, Thor was ready to return to the wild where he belongs.

With teeth the size of wolves' and jaws that open wider than a pit bull's, a grey seal is not the ideal animal to have within feet of your camera lens. And though the Foundation's staff members and volunteers were as prepared as they could be for the possibility of Thor turning around to bite the hands that fed him, the moment the door was lifted was tense and silent.

As the plump, grey body of the seal came into view, the crowd let out a collective breath.

"His eyes are closed," one of the volunteers remarked.

Amid peals of laughter, the crowd's patience was tested as Rob and his staff tried to figure out the best way for this seal to be roused from his mid-afternoon nap and coaxed into the warm water of the Inlet. "We could open up the back and poke him with the end of the net to get him to turn around," one of the Foundation staff suggested. "But we don't want him running out into the parking lot," Rob replied. After a few minutes of trying to rouse him from the Inlet-side of the cage, it became clear that the only choice the rescuers had was to either crawl into the cage to wake the seal by hand or open up the back to push him out. As Thor opened one eye and gave the crowd a big yawn, Rob tried prodding him from the back. In a flash, Thor awakened from his deep slumber, deftly hoisted all 770-pounds of himself down the plank and splashed into the water. Mission accomplished.

Looking more like an affable dinosaur than a dangerous predator, Thor happily swam out to the bridge, looking over his shoulder every few strokes as if to say, "Thanks for all the encouragement, guys! See you this winter!" The staff and volunteers were sad to see him go, but as his blubbery shape began to get lost in the expanse of water, perfectly camouflaged against the brownish-grey waters of the Shinnecock Inlet, most everyone watching the release fell into a sort of calm. Thor was on his way to living where he was supposed to, anywhere he wants to go on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

It might be unsettling to realize that 800-pound animals are regularly found right below the surface of the waters we all fish and swim in, but many types of seals, including grey seals, can be found all around Long Island, especially in the winter months. Although Thor washed up in New Jersey, the tracking device data collected after his release seemed to echo that he had been in Long Island's waters before. After floating around happily in the Shinnecock Inlet off of Hampton Bays, he swam to Amagansett and then headed out to Rhode Island and on to Massachusetts. Perhaps the water was still a little bit too warm for him to hang around. If his tracking device doesn't fall off, perhaps the Foundation will be able to track Thor's return to our area this winter.

"A lot of that release went too well," Rob DiGiovanni confessed later. "All people are going to remember is that [Thor] wouldn't move and we had to poke him with a stick to wake him up." If the public becomes too comfortable with the idea of coming into direct physical contact with these large, powerful animals, "someone's going to get hurt," Rob warned. However, seals of Thor's size are not expected to be as aggressive towards humans as a smaller, more vulnerable seal might. And because all seals have sharp teeth and can harbor dangerous bacterial infections in their mouths and around their snouts, it is safest to report seal sightings from a distance and be sure to keep out of their way.

In most cases, when an animal is moving from the confines of a cage or crate into the open water, things don't always go so smoothly. Rob explained that, "Another animal that was more aggressive would have fought us the whole way. An animal that was a little bit smaller might have been a little bit more tenacious." In this sense, it seems that Thor's immense proportions worked in the favor of all who attended his release. Rob confided that although he and his team were worried that he wouldn't make it down the ramp at first, "he just trucked down the platform and right into the water."

For the crowd, this was a delightful sight and Thor's expressive dark eyes looking back over his shoulder at his rescuers melted any of our fears or apprehensions in just minutes. As he happily swam around the pilings, those on the bridge and dock could see the big, juicy fish swimming only a few feet away, and it was clear that Thor had been saved and given a second chance at a life in the wild.

If you missed Thor's release, don't be distraught. Although Thor was the first grey seal the Foundation has released, they are frequently releasing seals, sea turtles, dolphins and porpoises that they have saved and rehabilitated. For more information visit www.riverheadfoundation.org or call (631) 369-9840. If you see any sort of marine mammal or sea turtle, dead or alive, in distress or just frolicking in the waves, be sure to call the Riverhead Foundation's Stranding Hotline at (631) 369-9829 so that they can continue to watch over the marine life in our area.