Rescued seal to return to the sea
Published: October 10, 2006
After receiving care and medical help for nearly seven weeks, a juvenile hooded seal will be returned to the wild at 10 this morning at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown.
The female seal was seen Aug. 13 in the water off Green Hill Beach in South Kingstown. It swam into the Charlestown Breachway and entered Charlestown Pond, said Cindy Davis, assistant for the Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Program of Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration, in Mystic, Conn. The aquarium is responsible for rescuing animals in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
“The seal seemed pretty lethargic,” Davis said. “A hooded seal spends more time in Arctic regions so it was slightly out of [its] habitat, which was a concern of ours.”
Hooded seals live in the icy northern parts of the Atlantic Ocean. While they often visit Connecticut and Rhode Island in winter, hooded seals mysteriously traveled as far south as North Carolina this summer.
The 65-pound seal was dehydrated and had eaten a bellyful of sand. Davis said a seal gets water from fish and other food. To supplement the diet, a seal would also eat ice or snow, which it cannot distinguish from sand or rocks.
With the help of a volunteer, Davis drove the seal to the aquarium for treatment. A week later, the seal had a seizure that led to brain swelling and pneumonia. The seal’s condition slowly improved with antibiotics and assisted feedings.
The seal gained 23 pounds and stopped taking medication two weeks ago. “She’s much more alert, aggressive and feisty,” Davis said. “That’s common to a hooded seal.… When we do our physicals and procedures like that, and even when you come up to the tank, some types of seals might be curious and try to see what you’re doing. She, on the other hand, would vocalize and try to scare you away.”
Davis hopes the hooded seal will travel north after the release.
This is the seventh seal in Rhode Island the program has tried to rescue this year. Other rescued species included gray seals, harbor seals and one harp seal. Most survived and were released. Two died; one from a flipper injury and one from pneumonia. One other seal was sent to a zoo in Albuquerque, N.M., because it was not able to live in the wild.
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