By Will Collette
We took our niece and grand-niece to Mystic Aquarium last Thursday. While we were making the rounds, we went by the Marine Animal Rescue team’s section and I happened to notice a perky young seal, a beautiful tan color, and I mentioned to my niece that that seal was probably going to be the next one set free in Charlestown.
Sure enough, “Nutmeg” is ready to return to the wild and will be released on Tuesday morning, May 26 at 11 AM from Blue Shutters Beach.
Nutmeg is an approximately 1-2 year old male harp seal rescued from Groton, CT on April 13, 2015. He was dehydrated and required treatment for pneumonia, but has now fully recovered. He weighed 68 lbs. when Mystic took him in and now weighs more than 75 lbs.
I was shown some signs recently that there may be an emerging anti-seal NIMBY faction emerging in Charlestown. Yeah, that’s right. It’s getting so there is no activity, however commendable, that isn’t going to stir up some NIMBYism in this insular, small-minded, self-centered town. And I'm not making this up.
The cover for this latest NIMBY stuff is that Mystic releases too many seals from Charlestown’s beaches, thus creating a surplus of marine predators who are doing something that’s bad but nobody apparently knows what. The seals just might be eating fish, but I could be wrong.
So before Mystic releases anymore seals from Charlestown, as this latest NIMBY tune goes, Mystic needs to coordinate not just with NOAA (as they already do), but with DEM, CRDC, the town of Charlestown and maybe some other agencies. And they need to do a bunch of scientific studies.
By which time, the seal is dead of old age.
But for now, let’s focus on Nutmeg’s release on Tuesday. These seal releases are fun for the whole family. I’ve seen a bunch of them and have been reporting on them in Progressive Charlestown for the past three years.
Recently, even the CCA Party has gotten into the act by running some photos of releases. I suspect they will stop doing that now that there is some NIMBY yapping against seal releases. The CCA Party can’t resist a NIMBY fight, regardless of the reason. Or the merits.
I think Mystic Aquarium is going great work and especially love their Marine Animal Rescue Program. Cathy and I are both members. If you want to support Mystic’s work, click here.