New Haven Police Department
It’s not exceedingly rare to spot a seal that’s made its way onto land when you’re on the New England shoreline. However, officials in Connecticut were understandably surprised to encounter a baby one that managed to end up in the middle of a street in New Haven.
The New England coastline stretches for more than 6,000 miles from the western border of Connecticut to the northernmost point of Maine, and there are hundreds of aquatic animals that call the waters off of it home.
That includes a handful of different species of seals (including the gray, harbor, harp, and hooded variety) that occasionally use New England’s beaches and rocks as a sanctuary when they want a break from the ocean, and if you spend enough time near the water in cities like Boston, Portland, and Portsmouth, there’s a solid chance you’ll end up spotting some.
Those seals have a tendency to migrate south during the colder months of the year, and plenty of them end up off the coast of Connecticut in Long Island Sound. That approximately 110-mile stretch boasts fairly sizeable cities including Stamford, Bridgeport, and New Haven—the last of which got a fairly unexpected visitor over the weekend.
According to Fox61, a gray seal believed to be just a few weeks old was discovered in the vicinity of Chapel and East Street before authorities contacted officials at Mystic Aquarium who dispatched a rescue team to its location.
Meet the newest addition to the department! pic.twitter.com/anx1ERrLQn
— New Haven Police Department (@NHPDnews) February 16, 2025
The “lethargic, dehydrated” seal was evaluated at the aquarium where it tipped the scales at 28 pounds (one its age should weigh closer to 35), and its veterinarians have kickstarted the rehabilitation process that should result in it being rereleased into the wild within the next few weeks.
It’s currently unclear how the seal ended up on a street in New Haven in the first place, but it was found a short walk away from the Mill River, a tributary of New Haven Harbor that exits to Long Island Sound.