Dead Seals, Tuna, Birds

It's odd watching other people trying to figure out a mystery.

I've been involved in pursuing diagnoses for some time, and I know I want to go to the scene, as much as possible.

Whatever I know of police investigations, they feel the same way. Go to the scene and don't allow anybody to disturb the scene.

So, when I arrive on the scene and observe things, I look around for investigators. I see none. But then again, I'm not at the scene for more than fifteen minutes on any given day.

At the beginning of the week, October 1 or thereabouts, I walked along the beach with my dog and found an adult seal, dead, Further down the beach, at Plaice Cove, we found a dead fish, later identified as an eight foot blue fin tuna.

For several weeks prior, small seals had been washing up in Plaice Cove, about one every other day for a week. And birds, maybe half a dozen dead gulls, washed ashore.

I phoned the numbers in the paper to report the findings. I imagine others did, too.

The seals disappeared fairly promptly, usually within three days. The birds too. The fish is still out there. He must be tougher to haul off. Must weight 300 pounds.

One marine biologist from Maine was interviewed and mentioned a prior event with deal seals a decade or more ago, which sounded like this one, but he did not mention the birds or fish being involved.

Another biologist raised the issue of avian influenza. Now that rang a bell--the birds and the seals connected.

But what about that tuna?

The Hampton, New Hampshire marine biologist said it was nearly unprecedented to have a full grown tuna wash ashore at Plaice Cove. She could not recall another instance.

So we are talking about something which makes a leap cross species, if all the deaths are caused by one cause, which has not been established.

Of course, we are not panicking.

The nuclear power plant at Seabrook, two miles away had to shut down two days ago. Something about a pump failure. Now that might be something to panic about.

But these seals, the fish, the birds, are they the canaries in the coal mine? Are they the dead rats who are harbingers of the Black Death, Yesina Pestis?

One of the biologists interviewed sounded pretty annoyed at all the citizens who have been finding these seals. It's a federal offense to come within 100 feet of such beach kill, such detritus.

That's the sort of remark that gives authority a bad name. What an officious remark. You can understand the guy is concerned if he thinks there may be some sort of marine Ebola virus running a muck off the New Hampshire coast. But if he thinks that, why is there not more evidence of government concern? Where are the guys you see in the movies in the white suits? And why is that tuna still on the beach?

The fact is, I'm pretty impressed somebody in authority has bothered to do autopsies (necropsies) on two seal pups. They presumably sent off lung tissue for viral cultures. They did mention the seal pups had plenty of blubber and did not starve to death. But nobody mentioned bird or fish examinations.

Meanwhile, the good citizens of Hampton, New Hampshire continue to walk the beach with their dogs and children.

And we look out to sea, past the breakers, and think about the life out there we never could see before. We wonder about what sort of seal lives those wonderful, sleek looking creatures have been living, beyond our sight.

And we wonder about our own reaction. I felt genuinely sad for those fellow mammals. Seals, I know, eat penguins, who are also adorable. And they eat fish. They compete for life in those waters. But I've never heard a surfer say he's ever been bitten by a seal.

The surfers know if they see a lot of seals, there may be sharks not far behind.

Nobody around here has much sympathy for sharks.

But then again, no dead sharks have washed up.

If we start seeing sharks on the beach, we might work up a little sympathy for them.

Thing is, when you see these magnificent creatures, there is a sort of instant wonder. They are so perfect for their environment.

It brings to mind the Blake poem

Tiger, tiger burning bright.
In the forests of the night.
Oh, what hand, Oh what eye,
Forged thy fearful symmetry.

Which is not to toss in a vote for the creationists.

I don't know how these creatures came to be. In college, I was taught it was eons of evolution, mutation, environment and genetic selection.

Fact is, I don't really care how these wonderful animals came to be. It's just stunning to see them outside a zoo, on my beach, in all their staggering power and fit. They belong to this world somehow, in a way no humankind ever could.