6 Seal Carcasses Wash Up On RI Beach: Mystic Aquarium

MIDDLETOWN, RI — Local authorities on Thursday decided to bury the remains of six dead seals, which washed up on Sachuest Beach the same morning.

According to Dale Wolbrink at the Mystic Aquarium, the aquarium "was called to Middletown to respond to six deceased seals found on Sachuest Beach" Thursday morning.

"Due to the level of decomposition, it will be difficult to gather any data beyond simple morphometric information," she said, meaning no post-mortem exams are being performed to determine the cause of death.

"The seal carcasses will be buried by beach officials," she said.

Will Cronin, Middletown's operations manager, said "this morning the deceased animals were spotted on the beach during morning maintenance operation." The Town then notified Mystic "as per our protocol with any marine life that comes ashore," he said.

Michael Healey, at the state Department of Environmental Management, confirmed the Town also notified DEM.

"The Second Beach manager called our Division of Law Enforcement dispatcher at about 7 a.m. today to report that there were six dead seals on the beach," he said. "It's important for DEM to have a scientific connection to events like marine mammal strandings and mortalities, which we did in this case."

Written by Margo Sullivan

Photo credit: Shutterstock/Tim Zurowski