2 People Ticketed For Entering Closed Area With Seal At Robert Moses

WEST ISLIP, NY — Two individuals were ticketed in Robert Moses State Park earlier this month, after they went into a restricted area near a lounging seal, the New York Department of Conservation (DEC) said.

On March 18, environmental conservation police responded to a complaint from New York State Park Police of a potentially injured seal on the beach at Robert Moses State Park.

Officer Christopher DeRose arrived and observed the seal through his binoculars in an area of the beach currently closed to the public, designated as a nesting area for piping plovers.

He also spotted two individuals and their dog in the restricted, fenced-in part of the beach.

The two insisted they didn’t know the area was closed despite the rope fencing, colored flags, and large ‘Do Not Enter’ and ‘No Pets Year-Round’ signage, DEC said.

After a quick education on the importance of protecting the plover nesting area, DeRose ticketed the subjects for entering an area of the beach closed to the public.

He also checked on the seal, which was simply "resting and soaking up the warm evening sun," a release said.

Maxine Montello, rescue program director of the New York Marine Rescue Center, recently told Patch that the Marine Mammal Protection Act mandates that people stay 150 feet away from marine animals.

"It's really important that people do not get too close to these animals, because once you're going to change their behavior, which is considered technically harassing that animal," she said. "We don't want people to feed them, we don't want people to try to touch them, because all of that can stress that animal out, and then cause larger issues."

If one everwitnesses a seal or marine animal out of water, Montello said that the best thing to do is to give it space and to call the rescue center's 24-hour phone number at 631-369-9829.