TRURO, Mass. — July 29, 2014 — It is summer on Cape Cod. The weather is warm, the beaches are crowded. And the seafood? They're fighting over it.
On a typical summer afternoon off the coast of Cape Cod, nearly 1,000 gray seals sunbathe on a sandbar.
A few years ago, this would have been unbelievable. By the 1960s, the seals were hunted close to extinction, the result of a $5 bounty by the state in an attempt to eliminate an animal many considered a pest to fishermen.
But in 1972, Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act and scientists hoped the seals would rebound.
Mike Giblin is a volunteer with the National Park Service.
"This week in particular, it's definitely the most (seals) we've seen," he said.