Seal found on Point Lookout beach released
Nassau County police and a Riverhead marine group on Monday were trying to free a young seal caught in a fishing net at Point Lookout Beach in Hempstead, police said. (March 28, 2011) Credit: Jim Staubitser
A male gray seal found entangled early Monday in a fishing net on the town beach in Point Lookout was released in early afternoon after it was examined by a Riverhead marine group, officials said.
"The seal was taken to our facility and disentangled. There were no significant wounds," said Robert DiGiovanni, director of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation. He said the seal was released from the Ponquogue Bridge in Shinnecock Bay about 1:50 p.m.
The yearling seal was found on the Town of Hempstead beach at about 7:05 a.m., and an emergency call was made to the Nassau County Police Marine Bureau, a police spokesman said.
Police then notified the Riverhead Foundation, a nonprofit that works to rescue, rehabilitate and then release injured or distressed ocean mammals and other species, including sea turtles, seals, dolphins and porpoises.
DiGiovanni, who is senior biologist at the foundation, said the 50-pound seal was recovered from the beach at about 9:30 a.m.
"It's tangled in a monofilament-type fishing net," DiGiovanni said shortly after the seal was recovered.
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