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Your involvement and support are vital to the Center's efforts to conserve endangered whales and marine ecosystems.
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Thursday, October 2, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Gray Seal Freed from Entanglement
(Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA) - A female gray seal was freed from an anchored line on Monday by a team of researchers from the Cape Cod Stranding Network, a Project of the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(CCSN/IFAW) and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS). The CCSN/IFAW Seal Disentanglement Program generally captures and disentangles seals when they are hauled out on land. This was its first attempted "at sea" rescue of an entangled seal.
The seal was initially sighted entangled inside Chatham Harbor, just beyond the new break located off of North Beach, in Chatham. A Chatham fisherman reported the entanglement to the Chatham shellfish constable, who contacted CCSN/IFAW. CCSN/IFAW contacted PCCS to assist with the response. When rescuers arrived, they found the juvenile gray seal struggling to swim and to surface for air due an entanglement in an anchored line. The line wrapped several times around its neck, causing a constriction and limiting the animal's ability to move. The team carefully secured the animal and cut the line, freeing the animal from the entanglement. "The young seal was clearly stressed from the event, but it didn't appear to suffer any serious injuries as a result of the entanglement," said Katie Touhey, Emergency Relief Manager for Marine Mammal Strandings and Entanglements at CCSN/IFAW. The rapid, cooperative response efforts of the CCSN/IFAW and PCCS teams saved the animal from certain death with the rising tide. The Cape Cod Stranding Network/Project of IFAW works in collaboration with the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies to research and rescue local seal populations. To learn more about this collaboration, please contact Lisa Sette at 508.487.3623 Ext. 108 or to report an entangled marine mammal, call 800.900.3622. To report a stranded or injured whale, dolphin, or seal call the CCSN/IFAW Emergency Hotline at 508.743.9548 www.ifaw.org PCCS is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving marine mammals and ecosystems in the Gulf of Maine through research, education, public policy initiatives, and management strategies. | ||
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