BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. — The Mystic Aquarium Animal Rescue Team has never been busier.
Looking through binoculars, program manager Sarah Callan scanned the shoreline for a growing problem on Block Island, Rhode Island — entangled seals.
When fishing gear, garbage or a balloon gets wrapped around a gray seal’s neck, it tightens as the marine mammal — which can exceed 800 pounds — grows and can lead to significant injury or death.
Twenty entangled gray seals have been reported to the Connecticut-based non-profit so far this year; that is more than what’s typically documented by Mystic annually.
Callan called the spike “alarming.”
NBC News was given rare access to follow Mystic, working in partnership with the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society and Block Island Maritime Institute, as they set out to disentangle seals born within the last several months.
Callan and her colleagues flanked a group of seal pups sunbathing on the water’s edge. They army-crawled in an attempt not to spook the herd, before sprinting in with bright red boards to separate the entangled pup and scoop him up with a net in a feat of speed and impeccable timing.
Once the pup was contained, the team drew blood, attached a tracker for research and cut him free of the fishing net constricting his neck.
“We’re going to be able to just release the seal today and avoid having to bring it into our clinic for rehab,” Callan said, as the team worked. “The quicker we can get out here to disentangle them, the better.”
This is the same team that took in a wayward seal stranded in downtown New Haven, Connecticut, in February. The seal pup won over the internet with his big eyes and sweet cry, and the public even voted on his name, “Chappy.”
Sadly, he didn’t make it, succumbing to gastrointestinal issues that were too severe to treat. In a statement posted online, Mystic also said they found pieces of plastic in his stomach, “highlighting the threat that marine debris, especially plastics, poses to marine animals.”
Some estimates suggest plastic pollution kills more than 100,000 marine mammals every year.
“The amount of animals that are interacting with human-made products and debris within the first couple months of their life is a bit alarming,” Callan said, “and it directly relates to the state of the ocean. … We feel that it’s our job to help share that message and educate people on the threats they face.”
It’s a mounting fight that Mystic isn’t giving up on.
The team cheered, as the seal they just cut free from netting galumphed (the undulating motion seals use to move on land) back into the ocean.
“You get to give an animal a second chance at life that they normally wouldn’t have without our intervention,” Callan said. “It’s such a special moment to see.”
