- A young gray seal was reported to the Mystic Aquarium rescue team on Sunday and was found in devastating condition on Block Island the next day, Earth Day.
- Young seal found suffocated by plastic waste on Block Island, third case this week according to rescuers
- Distressing footage shows the seal barking in pain as the Aquarium’s marine specialists worked to free it from the crude rope and net.
A young gray seal was found dead, suffocated by plastic waste while swimming off the coast of Connecticut on Monday.
The juvenile seal was reported to the Mystic Aquarium rescue team on Sunday and was found in devastating condition on Block Island the next day, Earth Day.
Rescuers found the helpless animal, tangled in a pink plastic gillnet and nylon rope, writhing in pain. This is the third such case in the region within a week.
The young female was successfully placed in a crate on the beach near North Light and transported on the Block Island Ferry to the Mystic Aquarium animal rescue program.
The rope had cut deeply into the creature’s fins as it tried to escape the net.
A young gray seal was reported to the Mystic Aquarium rescue team on Sunday and was found in devastating condition on Block Island the next day, Earth Day.
The young seal was found dead, suffocated by plastic waste on Block Island, the third case this week according to rescuers.
Distressing footage shows the seal barking in pain as the Aquarium’s marine specialists worked to free it from the crude rope and net.
Six people are expected to assist veterinarian Natalie Noll as she examines the seal, takes blood samples and treats its wounds.
After being released, the animal was responsive and in good condition, according to Sarah Callan, animal rescue manager at Mystic Aquarium.
“The dangerous thing about animals this young is that they grow at a pretty rapid rate,” Callan told the Boston Globe.
“If we had not reached this animal at that time, this entanglement could have had very significant effects as it grew,” she explained.
“It’s very easy to separate the trash we throw away at home because we don’t see where it ends up,” Callan said of the trash that put the seal’s life at risk.
Distressing footage shows the seal barking in pain as the Aquarium’s marine specialists worked to free it from the crude rope and net.
Rescuers found the helpless animal, tangled in a pink plastic gill net and nylon rope.
“Even though you may not be the one dumping it into the ocean or dumping it on the beach, a lot of the trash we use every day ends up in the ocean in one way or another .”
It will likely be weeks before the young seal is healthy and can be released into the wild.
“It’s very appropriate that this seal washed up on Earth Day,” Callan told the Globe.
“It makes his rescue and his story even more meaningful to us.” We can all learn from this case and it sends a great message: there’s a lot of debris out there… Every individual effort plays a role in the overall situation for these animals.
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