Seal lost near Montreal heads back home

MONTREAL – A bearded seal that lost its way and ended up near Montreal is now on its way home.

The seal was last seen stranded on an ice floe in Lac St. Louis on Sunday – hundreds of kilometres away from its salt-water habitat in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Wildlife lovers who spotted the seal so far from its home grew worried and contacted the Reseau Quebecois d’urgences pour les mammiferes marins, a group that rescues marine mammals.

Robert Michaud, co-ordinator of the group, raised concerns that the creature with the grey furry coat was in danger because prolonged exposure to the freshwater environment of Lac St. Louis could damage its eyes.

Get breaking National news

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.

Sign up for breaking National newsletter Get Started

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

He had suggested that the seal had probably become lost and swam up the St. Lawrence River.

But on Tuesday, the group reported that the wayward seal had slipped back into the water on its own and was probably swimming back home.

“The seal was in good health,” said Veronique de la Cheneliere, a spokeswoman for the group.

“It was not a situation that was alarming. It happens on occasion that seals get lost in the St. Lawrence River. What we do is document these cases and raise awareness about stranded marine mammals.

“We want to encourage these animals to return to their natural habit by themselves.

“We don’t intervene unless there’s a major problem. We want nature to take its course.

“From the information we’ve gathered, this was a fairly fat seal,” she added. “It was behaving in a normal way, and it was not in an area where there is a lot of human activity.”

Seal sightings so close to Montreal are relatively rare, but they do happen, said de la Cheneliere, a wildlife biologist.

Bearded seals tend to prefer shallow waters no more than 200 metres in depth. They also like areas that are thick with ice floes.

Bearded seals, also called square flipper seals, generally segregate, with one adult per ice floe, according to the Animal Diversity website. They have abundant whiskers, hence the name “bearded.”