Neptune Burped

--> José is finally leaving us. It has been raining for five days here in the south of Boston area, especially the Cape and the islands. I stop short on complaining when I hear what Florida, Houston, Puerto Rico, and all the islands are going through.

This Saturday morning I finally get to take my 3-hour walk out to the Gurnet. It is low tide. This means that I can walk the shoreline in the soft sand but not today. The beach is a mess. I can see that the earlier tide has run right up to the snow fence where the piping plovers live. Never have I seen so many lobster pot buoys free from their pots. The wind is from the north and steady. Walking or running in the wind is not much fun but at least the rain has stopped.

Even though I am the only one on Duxbury Beach, I feel that someone is watching me. A movement catches my eye. Two large beautiful eyes with long lashes are looking at me from a pile of seaweed. I cannot believe what I am seeing. It is a seal. The waves have stranded it way in near the snow fence. It is small -- maybe four feet long. Is it a harbor seal or a grey seal. How can I help? 

 I place a white plastic basin next to him and ballast it with rocks making it easier for the rescue crew to find him. He is stranded between the first and second beach crossover. Maybe closer to the second. I will call the Duxbury Harbormaster when I get back to my pick up. Maybe it will be too late. Finally as I walk south, I see a couple walking towards me. “Do you have a cell phone?”

“Yes.”

“Could you call the harbormaster and tell them about the seal?”

It will be a long time before I get back to my truck. I hope he will be okay. I know that sometimes seals beach themselves to take a break, but this one is so far off the water line that I know he is in deep trouble.

I find an incredible buoy. It looks like a lighthouse. Sandy loves it when I bring even more stuff home. This one will thrill her. 

If I have to drive my truck down the gravel road to pick it up, I might as well do a clean up today. I have a final pool job to seal, but everything is still too wet. I have spare time. In the Navy, we called it Field Day. At Friendly Ice Cream it was called Spruce Up. Mom called it Spring or Fall Cleaning.

 I am finally back to the land side of the Gurnet Powder Point Bridge (constructed in 1892). Did that couple make the call to the Harbormaster? Did they relay properly everything I told them about the location? It is, after all, seven miles of beach. Most of the crossovers today are chained off. I call the Harbormaster he is vague about the rescue. I spoke to a policeman coming across the bridge, and he told me that they would normally call the aquarium. But what aquarium?  

I call the New England Aquarium. The answering machine says, “Press 6 if you want to report an injured or dead sea turtle, whale or seal.” I press 6 and leave a message. Even before I cross over the bridge, Nicole is returning my call. My news sounds like it is news to her. I relay all the facts to Nicole. She sounds responsible. She says, “A crew is on the way."

 

Boy, there are a lot of windsurfers out today -- and no fishermen. Many birders with their binoculars. I stop and pick up my stashes of litter and buoys. Is it bouy or buoys?

I finally reach the third crossover, where I left my lighthouse-looking buoy. There is a jeep parked there full of dogs. A woman is walking towards the ocean with a white pail. We pass as I load yet another buoy that I am sure Sandy will learn to love. OMG, it is Leslie Adams, daughter to my good friend Randy. She shows me the steamers she and her husband have collected. Randy is coming for dinner tonight. Leslie says that the bay water is kind of mucky and that is why she was getting a pail from the Atlantic, to keep them fresh.

My truck is so full of Neptune’s treasures that I decide to do an inventory when I get home. The sun still hasn’t come out. Kezia e-mails from Sutton, Massachusetts, where it is sunny and 80 degrees. WHAT THE …?

• 39 pieces of charcoal oak firewood

• 6 buoys bouy whatever

• 8 bags of dog shit in bright blue bags. I simply do not like your dog … but I hate you.

• 10 pieces of footwear, no matches found

• 1 red plastic kids’ shovel

• 109 bottles and cans, disgusting

• diapers -- How can you leave diapers on the beach road?

• 1 ball cap  -- 80% chance it was worn improperly.

This year's sand toy collection.

  

“Hello this is the New England Aquarium. Yes, the crew found him. Thank you. We carried him down to the ocean and he swam away."   

No one will believe his story when he finally sees his family. He was, in fact, a young grey seal. Nice job.

by Bobby Bacon        

a friend to all water creatures