Four
harbor seals sent home to the open ocean by the Mystic Aquarium
By
Will Collette
First, a quick
apology to any readers who were alarmed or inconvenienced this morning by my
preview posting on today’s seal release at Blue Shutters Beach. I used
photos provided by the Aquarium with their news release to illustrate the
article; these photos are formatted in a way that triggers virus alerts (even though they are clean). I forgot to re-format them to prevent this. I replaced the photos in the preview article with ones that won’t
cause you any problems.
 |
| Orion was the first one out |
Now,
on to today’s big event which was the first time I’ve seen the good people at
the Mystic
Aquarium sea animal rescue program release four seals at once.
Even though I’ve often said that these seal releases never get old, it was very cool to see the dynamic created by setting all four free at once.
Even though I’ve often said that these seal releases never get old, it was very cool to see the dynamic created by setting all four free at once.
These
four harbor seals were rescued in various spots around New England and brought
to the Aquarium to be healed and nourished until they were ready to go home. They
are all around the same age (3-4 months) and size (between 40 and 48 pounds). The
always efficient Mystic folks lined up their carry cages and sprung the doors
pretty much at the same time.
 |
| Beautiful markings! |
As
I’ve seen on previous releases, some seals are ready to go and are pawing at
the grate as soon as they see the ocean. Others are not so sure about this
whole independence thing. But they always go, sometimes quick, sometimes not.
Even though each seal's carrier was labelled with the name the Aquarium staff had bestowed on the seal, after Orion was released and the others came out onto the beach, I lost track of who was whom. Thus, I can attach no names or genders to the four seals. I think the Aquarium should give each seal a name tag for future releases.
 |
| This one has a cool bandit's mask. Note the red board. The Aquarium staff come in force to ensure the crowd's and the seals' safety. They use the boards to steer the seals and to maintain some separation between them and the on-lookers. |
One
seal, Orion, was quick out of the gate and into the water in seconds. Then a pair
followed at a brisk pace. But one little one didn’t want to go, or at least
wanted some extra time to think about it.
As I’ve seen in previous releases,
the seals in the water usually stick around to encourage the recalcitrant one.
This time, it was three seals in the water urging the fourth to get a wiggle
on. Maybe he was spooked by the brisk surf and incoming tide.
But
they all went to the applause of the surprisingly small, post-Labor Day
audience.
The
Mystic Aquarium does good work. I can’t find the words to convey how much I
admire their sea
animal rescue program. Cathy and I joined the Aquarium, largely on the
merits of this program. I’d urge you to think about doing it, too.
 |
| Some pretty lively surf at Blue Shutters |
 |
| At the upper far left, you can see the first one to go in (probably Orion, but who knows), waiting for the others. It took some coaxing from the other three to get the little one at the end to commit. |