In lieu of Food Friday: Harp Seal Release
I’m out of town for the day, and if I was a super techno-blogger I would research and write and post from my phone but….I am not. So Food Friday: Blueberries will appear tomorrow. If you’ve got something you’re sharing on your site today, please leave it in the comments tomorrow!
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Will and Henry’s aunt volunteers with our local aquarium’s seal rescue program, and invited us to this recent release of a rehabbed harp seal that had stranded on the shores of New England with a belly full of rocks. The aquarium team worked with our hospital’s GI group (endoscopies aren’t just for people anymore) to treat this terribly sick animal, and at the release, they held up a large jar full of rocks that had been removed from his belly.
Ouch! Though, this guy is about Henry’s age, and I have caught Henry with a rock in his mouth before, so I guess I understand.
That’s a satellite tracker on his back, which will come off at his next molt in winter, or sooner. From the looks of the path on his tracking chart, it looks like sooner might have been yesterday, sadly.
It was amazing and wonderful and quite emotional to see this wild animal get a sniff of home, and then go headlong into the water where he belonged, after months of being around humans. He’ll now head to the far northern reaches of the Arctic, thousands of miles from where he stranded last April.
Safe travels, #39392! Or as we like to call him at our house, Rocky!
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Anna Sawin is a Connecticut-based portrait, wedding, and editorial photographer. She lives in the shoreline town of Stonington with her family and has discovered the perfect cupcake. Just ask, she is willing to share her secret.
Interesting idea to consider rocks as a Food Friday topic!
Safe travels, Rocky!
Thanks for sharing these! Safe travels home, Rocky! I love the picture of the kids watching Rocky go home (I’m assuming that’s what they are doing anyways!).
Aww, what a neat thing to take part in!
Good luck, Rocky! We hardly knew ye.
Hopefully, he’s learned his lesson.
I used to work for a vet. We once took over a pound of white landscaping gravel out of a golden retriever puppy. We had to explain to her that birds need rocks to help them digest their food, and she wasn’t a bird. Never saw her again, so she must have taken our advice to heart.
What a great story. Godspeed, Rocky!
(And a confession: I read that story and really had to think about how Rocky could have gotten hold of a jar that was filled with rocks. Did someone throw it out to sea? Feed it to him intentionally? And then… A HA! They put the rocks into the jar after they were removed. Nothing gets past me.)
awwww Rocky is adorbale-my lilest bean is an avid animal lover and she saw the pics and now wants to go visit Rocky!
Go Rocky, Go!!!
so cool! the kids must have loved that!
the shot of the four of them? love it.