Check it out: Caribbean Monk Seals now extinct..... Seals No More
Everything reminds me of everything else these days...
Like seals, even.... And the 'Monks' not only ones to "disappear" at hand of humin' beans these days, either... No Suh!
MANY, MANY YEARS AGO, I was the Radio Weatherman on Station WSTC, Stamford, CT. My duties entailed rising early every morning and high-tailing it out High Ridge Road to the grounds of the Stamford Museum and Nature Center, where I was in charge of a USWB (remember it?...United States Weather Bureau - forerunner to today's NASA as weather data source...) "Cooperative Observers Program" station and instrument shelter. I had to read the instruments, then go inside and monitor a shortwave link to "Class A" stations around New England (my favorite being the dudes up on Mt. Washington in NH, who even in midsummer often reported the door to their station frozen shut with ice rime! LOL! Gotta' love New England!) And then go on the air at 8:15 with the local forecast, and a general commentary for about 15 minutes on the local weather scene... Weatherman
Then I shut down, and went home to breakfast.
The instrument shelter and compound was right next to a small pond on the grounds (actually the old Henri Bendell Estate - he was a notable entrepeneur on NY's Fifth Avenue a long, long time ago...). It was a conceit of the (late) Ernie Luhde, then Director of the Museum, to keep a couple of seals in this pond, to complement his "petting zoo for kids" and mini-barnyard full of domestic animals nearby. They were great crowd-draws...
These seals had a "seal house" out in the middle of the pond - a sort of wood and concrete affair set on pilings, as best I recall at this stage. One summer morning as I was leaving, Ernie materialized out of the bushes (he was like that...) and said,
"Tex! You got to do me a favor... one of the seals has been missing for two days and no one knows what is wrong. We don't open for over an hour yet and no one is around: could you just peel down and dive in the pond and see if you can find him?"
(You got to understand Ernie was "sort of" my boss in a way, too - since I was also "on staff" at this Nature Museum of his... Sigh).
The pondwater was the color of a well-creamed cup of coffee, you got to understand, and I was less than enthused about diving into all that murk and feeling around in the dark waters... But what the heck?... So I peeled to the buff, left my clothes on the bank - and jumped in. Again and again I dove into the murky depths and felt around in the mud and gunk - nothing. Periodically, I would surface and blow - and Ernie would sing out,
"Any luck?"
"Nope" - and down I would go again - probing around the base of their sealhouse - everywhere...
The next time I came up, Ernie had disappeared. (He was kinda like that...). But what in hell was this? He had been replaced by about 25 little, laughing, screaming, pointing kids and one very startled young lady teacher! The first "visiting school class" of the day had arrived - and here was I - butt-naked in a muckhole of coffee-colored water in front of them and Ms Sweet Young Thing and her brood all laughing and pointing at me! I blew a couple of times (but did not bark!).
"Where are the seals? We want the seals!" they all chirped and Ms Sweet Young Thing was trying to hush them so she could hear me.
"Listen, Lady!," I said. "Listen, Ma'am! I am not really part of the act here. In fact (blow, blow) I am not even a seal - if you were to check." (Since this seemed to be going in wrong direction from the startled look on her face) - I hastened to add:
"Please get those brats off my clothes there - those rags in that heap they standing on! I am freezing and need to get out and get dressed!"
Suddenly she grasped the situation, and began to herd her charges up the path - toward the Mini-Farm and the delights waiting them there.
I crouched low and when I saw my chance I emerged rather like Moses materializing out of the bulrushes, and slipped into my clothes.
Great way to start the day!
Well, to wrap it all up - the seal was dead alright. He floated up a couple days later. It was surmised he had been "somehow" entangled in the understructure of his sealhouse. Perhaps... But I always harbored another notion: there was an automatic food dispenser pondside, that invited you insert a coin, and it would then dispense a frozen smelt or two. A popular pastime was to then toss these rockhard, frozen tidbits out to the seals and they would catch them on the fly and gulp them down - with a bark or two. Great sport! Kids all loved it.
But I seem to recall talk of a clandestine "autopsy" or something once that suggested the seal had choked to death on such a frozen tidbit lodged in its throat.
What I know anyway? "Tex" (aka bernie: Tex was a longtime nickname clear back to the days I had moved to the Northeast from the Lonestar...)
