This Tourist Arrived by Water When Diana dos Santos arrived for work at the River Project on Pier 26 in Tribeca on Feb. 28, she was surprised to find that she had company. A seal was lounging peacefully on the floating dock on the pier's south side. Though it was busy performing the usual seal chores-rolling around, flipping flippers, arching its body-dos Santos wanted to be sure the animal was okay. She took its picture and emailed it to Kim Durham of the Riverhead Foundation in Long Island, a marine animal rescue group. Durham identified the creature as a harp seal, 12 to 16 months old and similar to seals spotted earlier in Battery Park City's North Cove. Most importantly, she said the seal looked fine. It had probably climbed onto the dock to molt. "They love floating docks because the dock has a boundary all around it," Durham later told the Trib. "It seems safer to them than land while molting. Plus it has easy access to water and they can roll back in."