The 67 foot timber lighthouse on the island is the original, built 1830-31, the lantern is an aluminium replacement installed in 1978. It contains a modern beacon. 
 
Today Seal Island is in a state of decline. Only a handful of houses and sheds, a church and the automated lighthouse remain on an island that once boasted a permanent population, lobster cannery, post office and even a phone line to the mainland.  
 
This decline is nothing new for remote lighthouse and fishing islands off the Atlantic coast- many settlements were abandoned in the early twentieth century when gas boats and mainland amenities drew people away from their island homes. 
 
The freighter Fermont, run aground one year after the last keeper had left the lighthouse, sits hard on the sand of the east beach. 
 
Accessible only by boat. 
 

 
 
Seal Island Light Museum is a 35 foot replica of the 67 foot light house on Seal Island.