Just a few weeks ago a malnourished, juvenile gray seal was found along the shores of Nantucket. Now her rehab journey is over and you can watch her swim back to sea for the first time.

Back on Jan. 25, a lone gray seal was found on a Nantucket beach suffering from an injury and extremely thin. The team from the Mystic Aquarium's Animal Rescue Program was contacted and the seal dubbed 'Kiwi' began her road to recovery.

The team got Kiwi off the beach and into the state-of-the-art Animal Rescue Clinic at Mystic Aquarium and the results were pretty remarkable.

 

Though Kiwi was already four or five weeks old, she only weighed 27 pounds upon arrival at the aquarium. That was barely half of what a seal her age should weigh.

Getting her growing again was the rescue team's main goal, so that Kiwi could be returned to the open waters.

Thanks to the individualized veterinary care and quality nutritional care Kiwi received from the Mystic Aquarium team, the young gray seal healed from her injuries and more than doubled her weight in just a few weeks.

Once she hit 63 pounds, the team knew she was ready to return to her natural environment and an ocean release was planned.

Unfortunately, the powerful nor'easter earlier in the week postponed the original release date, but with clearer skies this past Thursday, Kiwi was ready to go home.

As they usually do, the Mystic Aquarium Rescue Team brought Kiwi to Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, Rhode Island, and released her into the Atlantic Ocean as a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers watched.

You, too, can watch Kiwi on her hesitant journey back home with this video courtesy of Mystic Aquarium.

 

Endangered Sea Turtles Released Back into Atlantic Ocean

The Mystic Aquarium Animal Rescue Team saw another set of rehabilitated animals returned to their ocean home recently with the release of five endangered sea turtles down in North Carolina.
One loggerhead sea turtle and four Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were the aquarium's part of a 26-sea-turtle release from four different animal rescues across the Northeast. See these endangered animals as they returned to their ocean home after months of treatment for their cold-stunning damage suffered in Cape Cod Bay.

All the Photos from the Grey Seal Release at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown

The Mystic Aquarium Rescue Program released a juvenile male grey seal on Tuesday at Blue Shutters Beach in Charlestown, Rhode Island. It was the first public release in two years and the crowd loved watching this seal pup head back home.

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