Premie the seal hesitantly pokes her head out of her cage on Head Beach in Phippsburg. (Louissa Strout/Contributed Photo)

On Christmas Eve, I had the pleasure of seeing a premature baby seal released at Head Beach in Phippsburg with an impressive crowd of onlookers. Premie had been rehabilitated at the Harpswell Triage Center of the Marine Mammals of Maine (MMoME) after being found in Surry, Maine more than seven months ago. I won’t recap the whole experience here because delightfully, this story made it into so many local news outlets including this paper.

But, on our drive home, I realized how little I knew about seals although I’ve written about them several times in recent years both to cover the good work of the MMoME and to report on the high mortality rates of seals this last summer. They saw over 1000 cases last summer as compared to around 300 the year before, primarily as the result of an outbreak of Phocine distemper. It was a difficult period for MMoME as they tried to respond to these cases with a limited staff and budget. That made this particular event all the more special. And, Premie is now vaccinated against distemper, so she will be protected as she grows up. 

As I watched this seven-month seal curiously navigate crashing waves, getting flipped back head over flipper several times, and poke her head above the surface to watch the drone that was watching her, I wondered what her life would be like out in the ocean in the winter. Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about sea ice and my neighbor seeing a seal riding a chunk of ice into Maquoit Bay. Perhaps Premie would take a rest on a chunk of ice like this, getting a free ride into a protected bay. But most of her time would be spent eating. By the time she left the rescue center, she was eating three pounds of fish everyday! Seals primarily eat medium-sized fish like cod, mackerel, and herring, and sometimes they eat small invertebrates as well. They have an amazing ability to maneuver underwater, using their fore flippers to steer and their hind flippers to propel them forward at speeds up to 12 miles per hour and to depths of over 600 feet. One thing that allows them to do all this fishing is their ability to hold their breath for long periods of time. At only two days old, a harbor seal can hold its breath for two minutes. By the time it is an adult, this extends to a half hour! Two major adaptations make this possible. The first is that they have a lot of blood, which means they can keep more oxygen in their bodies than most mammals. The second is that their muscles have an unusual amount of myoglobin that helps them store all that oxygen. And when Premie gets tired from swimming, her fatty blubber not only keeps her warm, but also allows her to float vertically in the water with her head out so that she can breathe while asleep. 

But what does she do with the rest of her time? While Premie will likely play with other young seals early in her life, as she gets older she will become more solitary and territorial. As often as we see groups of seals hauled out on the rocks, that has more to do with available sunny spots than it does with their desire to be together. They usually keep their distance from each other and if one adult tries to get too close to another, it might growl or snort or even bite. This behavior changes a bit when a seal becomes old enough to mate. This happens somewhere around 3 to 6 years of age for females. Several males may try to vie for her affection, fighting viciously to win. 

If Premie becomes pregnant, she will most likely carry just a single pup at a time for 9-11 months. Pups are born in spring or early summer and weigh around 20 pounds or so. They are born able to swim and see underwater. They’ll stay with her for 4 to 6 weeks, nursing, before they can fish on their own. It’s during this period that some pups will get tired of swimming after their mothers and take a rest on a nearby beach, alarming beach goers that they are hurt or sick when really they are just tired. In Premie’s case, she didn’t have the chance to spend this initial period with her mother as she appeared to have been born prematurely and was separated from her mother. But, with lots of good care and fish-catching practice over the first seven months of her life spent at the MMoME’s Harpswell facility, she swam off on Christmas Eve into the waves looking strong and confident.  

If you find a seal you are concerned about, the best thing to do is to give it plenty of room and to not try to approach it on your own. Take careful note of its location and take plenty of photographs. Then, call the Marine Mammals of Maine Stranding Hotline at 1-800-532-9551 to describe what you have seen. They can send a rescue team or advise you about what might be happening with the seal.