Coyote vs. Grey Seal on Cape Cod
Surf fishermen are no strangers to interactions with seals. Seals attacking hooked fish is an increasingly regular occurrence at Montauk, Nantucket, and the outer beaches of Cape Cod. This makes them extremely unpopular among anglers. Conflicts between seals and fishermen go back over a century, when there was actually a bounty on the heads of the gray seals.
Under the protection of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the grey seal population has grown exponentially, especially around Cape Cod. The seal colonies have in turn attracted great white sharks, which look to feed on the large seals, and as the shark numbers grow alongside the seals, beachgoers and boaters are occasionally treated to a “Shark Week” type display during their Cape Cod vacations. However, last summer Adam Gustafson captured an unlikely predator thinning the grey seal herd while boating around Race Point. The video, shared to Instagram by the account Nature Is Metal, shows a coyote attacks a grey seal pup at the waterline.
Coyotes are another common sight for the Cape Cod surfcaster, as they live and hunt in the dunes, and are occasionally bold enough to steal bait right out of a surf fisherman’s bucket. If the canines continue to make meals of the nuisance seals, many anglers would be happy to share the beach with them…at a distance.
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Source: https://onthewater.com/coyote-vs-grey-seal-on-cape-cod
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