National Aquarium staff were joined by volunteers on land and
the United States Coast Guard by sea at the Delaware Seashore
State Park to release “Hamilton”, a harbor seal rehabilitated by
the Aquarium’s Marine Animal Rescue Program (MARP), into the
ocean. More pictures of Hamilton can be viewed on the Aquarium’s
Flickr site! The harbor seal originally stranded on the beaches
of Bermuda in February. He was severely underweight and
dehydrated, and suffered from a monofilament line entanglement
around the neck. Staff at the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo
admitted the animal to their facility for rehabilitation, and
were able to get the animal back on track to health by removing
the monofilament line entanglement. Seals are extremely uncommon
in Bermuda, and this is only the 4th seal to be stranded in
Bermuda since the 1870’s. Since the seal required long-term
rehabilitation, the Bermuda Aquarium contacted the National
Aquarium’s experienced Marine Animal Rescue Program, and thanks
to a generous donation by Fed