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    Tuesday, November 05, 2024

    Seal swims away after flipper fixed

    A seal the Mystic Aquarium named “Cranberry” heads to Block Island Sound Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, after being released at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, R.I. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
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    A seal the Mystic Aquarium named “Cranberry” looks back towards the beach after entering Block Island Sound Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, R.I. The seal, badly injured and with a respiratory infection, took five months to recover. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
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    A seal the Mystic Aquarium named “Cranberry” heads to Block Island Sound on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, after being released from Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, R.I. The seal was badly injured and had a respiratory infection and took five months to recover. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
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    A seal named “Cranberry” by its caretakers at Mystic Aquarium enters Block Island on Sound Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, after being released at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, R.I. The seal was badly injured and had a respiratory infection, and it took five months to recover. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
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    Charlestown, R.I. ― A rehabilitated seal named Cranberry by its Mystic Aquarium caretakers was released into the waters at Blue Shutters Beach Wednesday morning.

    The seal hesitantly poked its head out of its crate, then tested a flipper on the sand before eventually leaving the crate and pulling itself toward the water.

    The seal had been at the aquarium for five months.

    On June 30, the aquarium’s animal rescue program received a report about a lethargic and malnourished seal, approximately six months old, that was stranded on the remote North Light location on Block Island.

    The aquarium joined forces with first responders and the local community to rescue the seal, a multi-day process due to its remote location.

    Once at the aquarium they discovered that Cranberry’s hind flipper had a severe wound and bone infection. They also found puncture wounds and a respiratory infection.

    Later a specialist from Pieper Memorial Veterinary Hospital in Middletown worked with aquarium veterinarians on a partial digit amputation to one of seal’s hind flippers.

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