Seal of Approval: Injured Gray Seal Finds a Permanent Home in Connecticut

A resilient young gray seal named "Pearl" is starting fresh after a spinal deformity left her unable to survive on her own in the wild. She is settling in at her new permanent home, the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk in Connecticut, thanks to NOAA Fisheries, rescue and rehabilitation experts, and aquarium staff. But her path to this second chance was a winding one-with two strandings, months of rehabilitation, and a missing satellite tag.

Stranded in Montauk

In August 2025, beachgoers near Gin Beach in Montauk, New York, spotted a gray seal with a large mass near her pelvic area and injuries to her back and flippers. Recognizing that the seal needed help , they called the marine mammal stranding hotline . Responders from the New York Marine Rescue Center arrived and admitted the seal for rehabilitation. They named her Pearl for her shiny silver coat.

Veterinarians at the center performed an X-ray on Pearl and discovered a spinal curvature. They also took a closer look at her wounds. Dried epoxy surrounded a cut on her back, and both rear flippers had v-shaped notches. These areas indicate that a satellite tag and flipper tags were previously attached to Pearl. Scientists are regularly permitted to attach these kinds of tags to animals during surveys or following rehabilitation to monitor their movements and behavior.

NOAA Fisheries consulted experts in Pearl's response and medical care to evaluate the wounds and potential theories on their removal-including human interference-but her case remains under investigation. Although we don't know how the tags came off, their presence showed Pearl had a history to uncover. So who was this seal, and where had she come from?

Solving the Puzzle of Pearl's Past

The New York Marine Rescue Center reached out to their partners in the Greater Atlantic Marine Mammal Stranding Network , hoping another facility could identify this seal. The Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut filled in the blanks: They had rehabilitated, tagged, and released Pearl after a stranding earlier that year.

It was January 2025, the peak of gray seal pupping season , when pups line the coastal islands of New England. Five-week-old Pearl was found emaciated, lethargic, and in poor body condition on a beach in Charlestown, Rhode Island.

The goal of marine mammal rehabilitation is to release the animal to its natural habitat once it is healthy. Animal care professionals help stranded seal pups learn the skills they need to feed and survive on their own. But Pearl's spinal deformity made her a special case. The Mystic Aquarium team needed to determine if her condition would stop her from swimming, eating, or hauling out.

After 3 months of specialized care, Pearl was ready to return to the wild. She was a healthy weight, and her spinal curvature hadn't worsened. She could swim normally and use her hind flippers. The aquarium released her in April 2025 with a satellite tag glued to the fur on her back and flipper tags. This allowed them to monitor her movements and evaluate the success of her rehabilitation.

What Health and Stranding History Tell Us

With a fuller picture of Pearl's history, the New York Marine Rescue Center's veterinary team assessed her health and investigated if she would be likely to survive and thrive in the wild. They found that her spinal curvature had worsened since her first stranding, impairing movement in her left hind flipper. The wounds from the removal of her tags, identified at her second stranding, also impacted her health.

Stranding a second time after rehabilitation does not bode well for an animal's ability to survive on its own. Taking into account all factors from both strandings, we determined that Pearl was non-releasable . This means she is unlikely to survive if returned to the wild again.

A Second Chance on Life

Finding a permanent home for a non-releasable animal requires careful consideration. We follow a distinct process to place animals in suitable facilities-such as licensed and accredited zoos and aquariums-that can provide the long-term care each animal needs.

For seals and sea lions, we keep a national list of facilities that are interested in housing specific species. We match animals with facilities that can best meet their specific needs. As we make a placement decision, we consider factors like the animal's age and any physical or behavioral limitations. We also take into account how soon a facility can receive the animal and how far it is from the animal's location.

Pearl's situation presented a unique challenge. Animals with significant injuries or lifelong medical issues may need specialized care or surgery, and not all facilities are equipped and staffed to handle these cases. Facilities also vary in terms of their capacity to treat different ages, quantities, and species of animals. In the United States, gray seals are less commonly maintained in permanent care; at the time of Pearl's stranding, only 23 gray seals lived at nine facilities nationwide.

Luckily, when we announced that Pearl needed a permanent home, the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk expressed interest. Their facility offers a large pinniped habitat where Pearl could socialize with another resident gray seal. They were ready to take her in quickly and have the medical expertise and resources to care for her specialized needs. Their proximity to the rehabilitation center in New York meant we could minimize Pearl's time in transport-and the stress that can come with it. For these reasons, we authorized the aquarium to become Pearl's forever home.

Pearl is adapting quickly to her new surroundings at the Maritime Aquarium, learning key behaviors and building trust with her caregivers to help ease the transition to her new environment. She is now out on exhibit with her fellow seals. "We are really excited we were selected to be Pearl's home and given the responsibility of establishing her training repertoire. She is ahead of the training goals we put in place, like coming out of the water and eating fish for our team members. This is essential for Pearl to join the other seals in our habitat. This is an exciting and rewarding moment for all those who have been a part of her journey," said Dylan Salamone, assistant curator of mammals at the Maritime Aquarium.

"We greatly appreciate the hard work and dedication of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network in helping us rescue animals in need. Each case helps our science and management programs learn more about the health threats and population dynamics for marine mammals in the wild," said Kimberly Damon-Randall, director of NOAA Fisheries' Office of Protected Resources. "We are grateful to the zoo and aquarium community for providing homes and second chances to animals like Pearl who cannot be returned to the wild."

An Ambassador for a Species

Since the passing of the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972, gray seal populations have rebounded from earlier declines due to hunting. We now take targeted measures to conserve these seals, the fish they eat, and the habitats where they live-like the Long Island Sound. Gray seals live there for much of the year, making Pearl a natural fit to represent the Maritime Aquarium's local ecosystem. With few other facilities displaying gray seals, she offers visitors a unique opportunity to learn about this species and the threats they face in the wild.