Egg Rock Light – Seal Pups & Lobsters

Egg Rock Light House

We’ve been to Egg Rock Light House before but we enjoy the ride and the wildlife we see so much we went back again on our anniversary weekend. This was part of the lobster tour out of Bar Harbor. Steve grew up lobstering so it wasn’t anything new to him but for me, in spite of marrying into a lobstering family decades ago, it was a first.  (We also went to Asticou Azalea Garden.)

Harbor Seals & Pups

Harbor seal pups stay with their mothers for only four to six weeks. We didn’t see any pups without mothers present the day we were at Egg Rock Lighthouse. In the first photo you can see a pup nursing, cormorants (the black birds) and male and female Eider ducks. All of the seals pictured are Harbor seals even though some have a rusty tone to their fur. It’s a result of their diet. The Gray seals were starting to appear at Egg Rock in the first week of June but I wasn’t able to get a good photo.

Pups approached the boat but their mothers swam out to bring them away from us. They were fun to watch.

Lobsters

The lobster portion of the trip was interesting. Steve said “v notch” before the captain had the trap all the way onto the table. A v-notched lobster is a female lobster that is a proven breeder. This one was a large female full of eggs but hadn’t been notched. By law, when a fisherman pulls up an egg-baring lobster that isn’t notched, he or she makes the notch before returning her to the water. It’s one way of keeping the lobster population healthy. It’s illegal to keep a v notched lobster, she has to be tossed back each time. The captain notched the center segment of the lobster’s tail fan and overboard she went, never to be eaten by a human being.

Bald Eagle on Egg Rock

A few years we watched an immature Bald eagle drying itself in the sun and wind on Egg Rock. It was soaking wet. This trip out, the eagle was dry. This immature Bald eagle watched everything going on. It’s used to boats and tourists and didn’t seem to care that we were there.