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Seal Island, situated 21 miles off the coast of Rockland in midcoast Maine, was once home to the largest Atlantic puffin colony in the Gulf of Maine.
For more than 200 years, it was also a summer campsite for fishermen harvesting herring, ground fish, and lobster from the sea. The fishermen also used their nets to harvest the nesting seabirds for meat, eggs, and feathers, which led to the demise of the puffin colony by 1887.
The island was also battered during the mid-20th century, when the U.S. Navy used it as a bombing target from the 1940s to the early 1960s. The effects of the bombing and shelling can still be seen on the island. Small craters and scarred granite are abundant, but growth of grasses and raspberry has concealed much of the damage.
In 1972, the Navy transferred the treeless and rocky 65-acre island to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today, Seal Island is managed in cooperation with National Audubon Society to preserve habitat for nesting seabirds, including arctic and common terns, eiders, guillemots, and Atlantic puffins.
Through its Project Puffin, the National Audubon Society successfully reintroduced Atlantic puffins to the island by transporting chicks from Newfoundland, Canada. About 230 puffin pairs now nest on the island after a 150-year absence.
Migrating peregrine falcons stop on rocky Seal Island to hunt seabirds and to rest.
Seal Island also has grown into one of the Gulf of Maine's largest tern colonies, supporting more than 2,200 pairs of arctic and common terns.
The island’s mix of grasslands and rocky ledge offers prime seabird nesting sites. The uncommon plant roseroot stonecrop (Sedum rosea) is exceptionally abundant on Seal Island, making it one of the most significant southern stations of this species in the eastern United States
In recent years, small numbers of endangered roseate terns have also nested on the island. Razorbills also recently initiated nesting on Seal Island, a major step in their recovery given they only nest on five other islands in Maine.
Seal Island is only one of 10 islands in Maine that host nesting great cormorants.
The surrounding ocean waters provide an abundance of herring and hake, the primary prey species for most of the seabirds nesting on the islands. The island is also an important stopover point for migrating songbirds, shorebirds and raptors.
In 2000, Seal Island was recognized as the largest gray seal pupping island in Maine. Harbor and gray seals are common on adjacent ledges and in surrounding waters throughout the year.
Seal Island can be viewed from sea, but it is closed to public access year-round due to the presence of unexploded weapons.
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