The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is searching for the person who stabbed a baby seal multiple times on a beach in Oregon.
The seal survived the March attack in a cove in the small town of Neskowin, which sits along the Pacific Ocean, NOAA said Monday. The administration’s marine stranding team was able to move it to a more secluded beach in Washington state last month.
Its wounds were healing, it had grown to about 300 pounds and there were no signs that the stabbing was going to have “lasting effects,” Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries West Coast region, said in an email.
The agency’s law enforcement office, which is investigating the attack, was searching for a “person of interest” spotted by a witness. NOAA released a sketch of the person, describing him as a White man with a groomed beard and a large gap between his front teeth.
Officials were also looking for the owner of a vehicle seen in a parking lot near the cove behind a condominium building that may be connected with the Sunday evening attack, according to NOAA. The agency described the vehicle as a dark blue 1990s Dodge or Chrysler van, adding that a rear window was covered in plastic and the interior of the van appeared to be cluttered.
Officials are asking anyone with information on the person of interest, vehicle owner or attack to call NOAA’s enforcement hotline.
In the spring and summer, juvenile elephant seals will often drag themselves onto Oregon’s beaches to spend weeks shedding their hair and skin, according to Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. Adult elephant seals are rarely seen in the state.
The seal that was stabbed likely left its mother very recently and was on its own to learn to hunt, Milstein said. Once it had grown a bit more, it would have likely made its way back to breeding areas around the Channel Islands off Southern California.
The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits harassing, harming, killing or feeding wild elephant seals and other marine mammals. Violators can face criminal penalties of up to $100,000 in fines and up to 1 year in jail.
Last year, a bottlenose dolphin was found shot to death on a Louisiana beach, prompting authorities to offer a $20,000 reward.
This article was first published by CBS News on 8 May 2025. Lead Image: This April 2025 photo provided by Seaside Aquarium shows a baby seal who the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said was stabbed on an Oregon beach in March. Tiffany Boothe / AP.
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