John Makowski has been fishing for lobsters in the Gulf of Maine in the Atlantic Ocean all his life. Fifteen years ago, a seagull suddenly appeared on John’s boat.
Makowski has named the seagull Red-eye. The bird watches him preparing and pulling out lobster traps and other work on the boat. “It comes right up to the glass and looks at me from close range. Just looking at me,” the sailor shared.
After ten years of friendship with the man, a seagull flew in with a friend. John named his seagull companion Hero.
One day the Red-eye flew in with a wound on her body and a broken leg. John was worried about whether the seagull would survive. “I don’t know why I was so emotionally crushed, as if I had lost some part,” John recalls. He caught the Red-eye and took it to the veterinary clinic. John visited his winged friend and brought its favourite food, hake fish. After a few weeks, the bird recovered and returned to its normal life: to accompany the sailor.
There is a belief that seagulls are haunted by the souls of dead sailors. John Makowski, a fourth-generation lobster fisherman, believes the Red-eye has the soul of his ancestor watching over him.
