Their resurgence has been a boon to tourism and residents who say they enjoy seeing them on the beach.
But some fishermen are less fond of the animals. They say the seals are responsible for polluting the water and devouring the supply of fish.
On Chatham Light Beach, where a lighthouse overlooks a long stretch of sand, gray seals that had gathered in a massive clump on a sandbar yesterday afternoon became the main attraction. Tourists and residents with cameras and binoculars watched the animals eagerly.
Patricia Marcello, 50, who was visiting from the nearby town of Centerville with two friends from Florida, said she had never seen such a large group of seals in more than 30 years living on the Cape. “It adds something to your visit,’’ she said.
Her husband, Thomas, 56, was intently watching seals climb onto the sandbar. “Look at them all!’’ he said, pressing binoculars to his eyes. “It’s a very inhumane kind of thing to shoot them.’’
The attacks on gray seals appear to be the most serious on marine mammals in at least three decades in New England, officials say.
Animal welfare activists said yesterday that the sixth gray seal was found with a fatal gunshot wound on an undisclosed beach. No further information was immediately available, said Michael Booth, a spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
The discovery came after five seals were found shot to death last month on Cape beaches from Dennis to Chatham over a two-week period.
Yet another dead seal was found yesterday on a beach in the town of Harwich, although the cause of death was still under investigation.
While no one condoned violence against the animals, the news has resurrected the difference of opinion about the seals in Chatham.
They were a pleasant surprise for Anthony and Holly Hamilton and their young children, visitors from Wisconsin. The Hamiltons had come to see the lighthouse. But their camera, complete with a long-range spotter scope, was pointed in the other direction — toward the seals.
