Pearl, a two-year-old gray seal with a spinal deformity, now lives at the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, Connecticut, after NOAA Fisheries determined that she could not survive in the wild. When she stranded in Montauk, New York, in August 2025, wounds on her back and rear flippers showed that the satellite and flipper tags she had been released with were no longer on her, and NOAA says how they came off is unknown.
The agency published her story on October 8, 2026, and says her case remains under investigation. Pearl is adjusting well and is now on exhibit with the other seals, and her permanent address follows two rescues and a release within eight months.
Two strandings in eight months
Pearl was about five weeks old in January 2025 when she was found emaciated and lethargic on a beach in Charlestown, Rhode Island, during pupping season. Experts from Mystic Aquarium responded to a stranding hotline report, monitored her for several days and then admitted her to its Animal Rescue Clinic. After about three months of care, she had reached a healthy weight, her spinal curvature had not worsened, and she could swim and use her hind flippers. Mystic released her on April 25, 2025, with a satellite tag glued to her back and tags on her flippers so that staff could track her movements, according to NOAA Fisheries’ feature story. In August 2025, beachgoers near Gin Beach in Montauk reported a gray seal with a large mass near her pelvic area and injuries to her back and flippers. Responders from the New York Marine Rescue Center admitted her and named her Pearl for her shiny silver coat.
Epoxy, notches and an open investigation
X-rays by the center’s veterinarians revealed the spinal curvature. Dried epoxy around a cut on her back, and v-shaped notches on both rear flippers, indicated that a satellite tag and flipper tags had been attached and then removed.
NOAA Fisheries consulted experts on the wounds and on possible causes, including human interference. The agency states that the case remains under investigation and that how the tags came off is unknown. The story names no suspect, no date for the removal and no federal office beyond NOAA Fisheries itself. Gray seals are protected throughout their range under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the act’s central prohibition, described on NOAA’s marine mammal protection page, is a ban on taking, which covers harassing, capturing or killing animals in the wild.
The tag wounds also affected her health. Together with a worsening spinal curve that now impaired movement in her left hind flipper, they led the New York center’s veterinary team and NOAA to conclude that Pearl was non-releasable. A second stranding after a full rehabilitation made the case for keeping her in human care stronger still.
Finding a facility for a seal with lifelong needs
NOAA keeps a national list of facilities interested in particular species and matches animals by age, physical or behavioural limitations, how quickly a facility can receive the animal, and distance. Pearl’s injuries and lifelong medical needs complicated that match, and the agency says so plainly, because not every facility can provide such care.
The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, where a Pinniped Cove exhibit houses its seals, offered a large habitat in which Pearl can live with another resident gray seal, along with the medical expertise she needs. Its closeness to the New York center also reduced the stress of transport. The scarcity of options matters here: when Pearl stranded, only 23 gray seals were held at nine facilities nationwide, according to NOAA. Dylan Salamone, the aquarium’s assistant curator of mammals, said the staff were really excited that the aquarium was selected to be Pearl’s home, and that she is ahead of her training goals, including coming out of the water to eat fish from staff.
The agency’s view of what each case teaches
Kimberly Damon-Randall, director of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Protected Resources, said that each case helps NOAA’s science and management programs learn more about the health threats facing marine mammals. She thanked the stranding network and the zoo and aquarium community for giving animals like Pearl a second chance.
NOAA’s species page lists the western North Atlantic stock as the one in U.S. waters, with roughly 450,000 gray seals in Canada and the United States combined, and the feature story says gray seals spend much of the year in Long Island Sound, which makes Pearl a local ambassador for the aquarium’s ecosystem. The agency asks people to keep at least 50 yards from seals, avoid feeding or touching them, and call trained responders if a seal appears to need help. Its gray seal profile gives the species’ adult sizes, about 7.5 feet and 550 pounds for females.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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