Update: Napping Seal Pup Makes Big Splash With Second Beach Visitors

A seal pup who came ashore on the east end of Second Beach late Sunday morning to apparently nap attracted quite a crowd of spectators into the early afternoon.

The harbor seal pup, estimated to be about two months old, came ashore shortly after 10 a.m. A steady throng of spectators from the beach and campground across the street gathered behind the police line at the scene to get a closer look.

By mid-afternoon, the seal pup finished his nap, waddled back into the water and swam off, according to beach-goers.

Officers from the Middletown Police Department and a representative from the Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge roped off a safe perimeter around the seal pup and closely monitored the seal pup throughout its brief stay. They were in frequent communication with marine biologists from the Mystic Aquarium who specialize in beach strandings.

Based on observations and communications relayed back and forth between the two teams, marine biologists from Mystic Aquarium concluded that the harbor seal pup appeared to be healthy and napping ashore, as the marine mammals tend to often do, according to Wendy Forber-Pratt, an National Wildlife Refuge Environmental Education intern on the scene early Sunday afternoon.

At several times, the seal pup was observed lifting its head, stretching out, glancing around at waves that washed ashore nearby and then return to napping.

After its first few hours ashore, the seal pup wriggled its way down the beach toward the shore and resettled again on the beach closer to the water's edge to continue napping, according to witnesses and a crowd of onlookers.

Forber-Pratt said that Mystic Aquarium officials had planned to make a determination as to whether any intervention to check for injuries was necessary if the seal pup lingered more than a few hours.

Forber-Pratt also took the opportunity to educate the growing crowd of onlookers at the scene about what to do if they encounter marine animals shore or what might appear to be injured wildlife. People should not touch the animals or marine mammals so as not to injure the animal or come in contact with any diseases.

Passers-by should not attempt to return any washed ashore animals to the water in case they are injured and could drown, Forber-Pratt said.

Anyone who finds stranded wildlife should call the Middletown Police Department at 401-846-1144, as well as the Mystic Aquarium's 24-hour Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Stranding Hotline at 860.572.5955 ext.107. Leave your name, a phone number where you can be reached and the location of the animal.