VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — On Monday afternoon, wildlife conservation photographer James Ford snapped a few photographs of a juvenile grey seal on the beach at 33rd street at the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach — a sight he said is very rare.
“It’s really such a rare thing to see here,” said Ford, who also shot video of the grey seal resting on the beach. “It’s such a beautiful and really cool thing to see.”
It’s not a very common sight, but it’s also not unusual, according to Kristina Scott with the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.
“I’ve driven up to Cape Cod to see them before, and they’re hard to photograph up there,” he said. “So when they come up on a beach like this here locally, where you don’t usually see them except for maybe once or twice in a winter, you get if you get a spot. And I mean, it’s really a beautiful thing.”
The Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team members blocked the seal off from the public and took photos while monitoring the seal’s condition.
They said the juvenile seal looked healthy and was neither injured nor appeared to be sick.
Picking this spot as a resting place is common for grey seals from November to late March, according to the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team.
For Ford, a wildlife photographer, he said it is still an awesome sight to see for the folks here in Virginia Beach.
“You think Sandbridge or Back Bay is where they usually show up,” Ford said. “We had one show up in Back Bay last year between there and False Cape. They show up in Outer Banks. Usually, it’s harbor seals that show up a little bit more. … It’s really awesome to see. Like you don’t expect to see things like that around here.”
On the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center website, it states that “seals are frequent visitors to our area in the winter, [and] though they can take short naps underwater, they must come onto land to get a full night’s sleep, and will often haul out onto beaches, rocks and structures near the water.”
Members of the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team kept a watchful eye on the seal overnight until the seal made its way back into the ocean and headed for cooler waters.
The Virginia Aquarium says if people encounter a seal on the beach to keep at least 50 yards from them, as most seals spotted on land are healthy and simply resting.
However, if a lone seal appears in distress or stays in the same place for more than eight hours, it said to call the Stranding Response Team at 757-385-7575 to report it.