Wednesday, April 01, 2009
(photo: Mark Tatem/Bermuda Royal Gazette)
A stranded young Atlantic Harbour Seal was sent from Bermuda to Newark, New Jersey, via FedEx last week. The young male seal, starving and suffering from a laceration in his neck, was found washed up on a beach in Bermuda on February 15. He was only the fourth stranded seal to be recorded in Bermuda in the last 150 years, and the first to be successfully rehabilitated.
After six weeks of intensive care by the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo staff, the seal was transported by FedEx on a Cargojet plane to Newark, and then driven more than 100 miles to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, where he will receive additional treatment and rehabilitation before being released back into the wild. He was accompanied by Dr. Brent Whitaker, the director of biological programs at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, who ensured that the seal stayed hydrated and comfortable during the trip. FedEx was so impressed by the seal’s survival that it covered the seal’s transportation costs to Baltimore.
The unusual delivery of the injured seal required massive amounts of paperwork and security clearances from both the U.S. and Bermudan governments. These included the equivalent of an animal visa—a National Marine Fisheries Service permit to import him into the US for medical reasons prior to release—as well as a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service importation permit, a special Bermuda Government permit to export a marine mammal, and letters from doctors in the U.S. and Bermuda stating his fitness to travel.
-Angela Chen
Stranded Seal Gets a FedEx Flight Back Across the Ocean (by Amanda Dale, Bermuda Royal Gazette)
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