NOAA Is Investigating Disturbing Attack on Seal Pup

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Law Enforcement is trying to track down somebody who stabbed an elephant seal pup multiple times. NOAA says the 300-pound seal pup survived the attack in a cove in Neskowin, Oregon, on March 16. It was attacked some time between 8:30pm and 11pm. "The Marine Stranding Team monitored and evaluated the animal before relocating it," NOAA Fisheries said in a news release. They described the suspect as "approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a standard build, black and white hair, a groomed beard, and a large gap between his front teeth."

A witness said the suspect was wearing "aviator glasses with thick lenses," a "thin blue and light green fleece top over a thin, lined check/shirt," and a black cap with a "logo depicting an orange four-track excavator with the word 'Timber,'" according to the NOAA release. "It's very rare to hear of this type of crime where someone would do something like this, and that is why we're wanting to make sure and identify this individual," said Eric Morgan at the agency's law enforcement office, per KLCC . "We were disturbed about that behavior and why they would do that to one of these seals."

The suspect may have been driving a dark blue 1990s Dodge or Chrysler van spotted in a parking lot adjacent to the cove, NOAA said. NOAA public affairs officer Michael Milstein tells the New York Times that by mid-April, around a month after the attack, the seal had healed and was showing no lasting effects from its injuries. "Young elephant seals like this often spend time on their own, learning to hunt and growing larger, before eventually returning to breeding areas in and around the Channel Islands off Southern California," Milstein says. (More elephant seals stories.)