While the late-Friday bidding suggests a cooperative of nonprofits will fall short in their quest to buy Little Gull Island, three are likely a host of wild animals who will still get to call the island home.
In addition to supporting flocks of nesting terns, the small island located off of the coast of Plum Island is also acts as a nursery for grey seal populations, according to environmental org, photographers and even satellite imagery.
In fact, the satellite image in Google Maps shows the island packed with seals, and Google dates the image as taken in 2012. The satellite images on MapQuest, however, as well as Bing, seem to show none of these aquatic mammals.
A website post from the Coastal Reasearch and Education Society of Long Island claims the seal rookery was discovered in 2006, and before that it was thought that the closest rookery was in the Nantucket Sound. But shortly after the publication of this artcile, Dr. Arthur Kopelman, a population ecologist and President of the Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island, said that the presence of a grey seal rookery around Little Gull Island is "yet to be confirmed."
There are a host of photos and videos online showing seals at the location.
