Stranded baby seal draws crowd, flops back in water

BAYSIDE -- Don't let the emergency service unit, or crime scene tape around the boat slip at the Queens Bayside Marina fool you.

A baby seal stranded on the boat slip gathered quite the audience on Sunday afternoon, many pulling out cameras to get a shot.

"I saw Eyewitness News, I stopped to see what was happening, and then I heard it was a baby seal," says Suann Dugan.

Park services believe the seal may have become stranded after the tide went back out, leaving it about 100 feet from the water. At one point the baby seal started to moved towards the water, but took a break right at the edge.

"I would be tired going down that, crawling with those little fins myself," said Michael Volk.

By the looks of the seal's yawn, and it rolling on to its side, it was not in a hurry to leave, which was fine with all the onlookers who were getting a glimpse of something you don't see every day.

Park officials thought that once the tide came back up, the seal would swim off if he did not flop back into the water before then, finding its mother.

And the seal flopped back into the water just before 6 p.m.

Wildlife experts think it might have gotten stranded on the boat slip when high tide went out.