Traveling Seal Seeks Direction At Police Station

A grey seal emerged from the sea off the Massachusetts coast and flopped into the seaside town of Beverly. The seal took up residence in the inland Shoe Pond where local authorities failed repeatedly to capture the wayward mammal.

After charming the residents for a week – they named him “Shoebert” – the seal turned himself in, climbing from the pond in the middle of the night to walk directly to the Beverly Police Department.

“Breaking ‘Shoebert’ News,” the BPD reported on Facebook. “At approximately 2:30am on 09/23/22 we had a visit from everyone’s favorite seal Shoebert. Shoebert made his way out of the pond and traveled through the Cummings Center parking lot and came to the side door of the police station for some help.”

The cops called for a lot of backup, enlisting the help of Animal Control, personnel from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Beverly Fire Department. 

(If only Freya, the famous walrus butchered by Norwegian authorities who could not be bothered to relocate her safely, had been treated with such tender care!)

The concerted effort was enough to get Shoebert safely into a wildlife carrier for transport to the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. “Shoebert appeared to be in good health and was a little sassy in the early morning hours,” declared the BPD.

Shoebert will get checked out at the Aquarium and released back to the wild. This is not his first visit to Mystic: the seal had been rescued as a pup and tagged there in 2018, then released off the Rhode Island coast.

Got a feeling we’ll be hearing from Shoebert again someday. Ave Maria!

Photo credit: @eibaseballwidow on Twitter