Hungry seal hits bonanza at fish hatchery

That wasn't a seal! It was Rosie O'Donnell.

What a little smartie.....

Good for her! After all that travel, she deserves some tasty lunch. Sounds like something my cat would do...

In life, sometimes you gotta take big risks to get big rewards. T

Wow ... at least she worked for it ....I will go no further!

Good for her! You go girl!

It is another event like the Manatee that found it's way up to the Cape
last year! Who would of ever thought that could happen? It's a fast
world we are living in. I am never surprised anymore.

Why is the seal's nose all red in the close up but not red in the main picture in which she has a trout in her mouth? Hopefully they didn't hurt her while trying to nab her...?

That's too funny! She knew right where to go for a good snack. What a clever little seal!

That's can't be Rosie, it's not a picture of a pig.

Thanks for the laugh with a great story. Well written too!

The front-page pic of her w/fish in mouth - " What?!"

Can't be Rosie - the moustache is too small.

She was hungry after that long haul, and saw the sign that said "Sandwich."

Thanks for a story I can smile about and share with my kids!!!!!!

Gee whiz, I'm no fan of Rosie's but comments are a little harsh! As to the seal, I say bravo to her for showing extraordinary initiative in her search for food. I say "boo, hiss" to those who captured her and shoved her back into the forbidding north Atlantic. She had found paradise, only to be tossed out. Sound familiar?

now that's my kinda girl!!!
i hope they sent her off with a "doggie bag".

It has to be O'Donnell.
It was tagged, tattooed and feeding incessantly.

So cute! What a nice story. I hope she will be ok.

Thanks for this fun story while the rest of the news leaves much to be desired.

Good for her!

Tough economy results in real hustle!

It's nice to know that all the people on here who make gratuitous cheap cracks about Rosie O'Donnell have nice people who copy their crayon scribbles onto a computer blog. I'm not particular fan of Rosie's, either; but is it too much to ask that on a topic like this, people stick to the topic? What this seal reminded me of is the time I was in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 2000, and our tour guide told us of how tough it is to keep seals out of fish farms (and they often take one or two bites out of the fish and leave the rest -- they don't eat it all).

The story is wicked cute, but the comments? Wicked nasty! Why ruin such an awesome puff-piece with your ugly misogyny.

Can't be Rosie O'Donnell. She's Too little, too quiet, too pleasant and no armed guards--can't be ole' tons-o-fun (not.)

Lucky she was at sate hatchery and not a commercial fish farm. She would have ended up in the obits.

Tomorrow's Globe will report that Gov. Patrick is proposing a meal tax on seals; the Legislature is proposing toll booths at the entrances to fish hatcheries; and the Cape's congressmen, Bill Delahunt and Barney Frank, are co-sponsoring a bill that will increase trout quotas for female seals while further restricting catches for male sea lions (unless, of course, they're gay).

what a beautiful animal

She was in paradise, alright. They should have clubbed her and sent her to paradise. She'll be back and bring some friends.

You go girl!

Congratulations! To travel that far the seal was deserving of a good meal.
Posted by Leo saidnawey January 7 2009 8:30 AM

Haha great story!

A great story...The hatchery is a great place to visit. I take my kids there so they can see the fish before catching them in the State Forest. It is the best example of seeing license revenues put to their proper use and gives a better understanding of "conservation."

Waddle we eat today?

Little do they know that I orchestrated the whole thing!

If I had a seal I would name him Blubbers and I'd make him do tricks for me and I would reward him with pickles.

Little known fact about seals.....they enjoy hiking and cross country skiing....also they dislike cats.

Finally a newspaper that understands that the front pages of newspapers don't always have to be filled with murder and financial bail outs.

Finally news that makes one smile!!

Ellie the Manatee was just Mayor Menino on vacation.

sounds more like some human intervention here..helping our seal friend along...they're probably having a good laugh this am

Now that she knows how to get there, does anybody think that seal won't be back before long?

does she know where to go for her dinner tomorrow night?

Of course it was Rosie O'Donnell.
She is a known fish-eater.

The Seal should be given a prison term of 5-10 years. Parole in 3.

Adorable! Glad she was healthy and is able to go back out to sea to tell her little seal friends.

Fyi the seal on the front of boston.com is not the same seal on this page. It is a stock photo.

Don't believe everything you read. This sounds like the kind of thing some fraternity would do for a prank (capturing a baby seal and dropping it off in the hatchery).

What a cutie she is.

...proving to be a lot smarter than the rest of us!...you go girl!

I might buy a seal-skin jacket.

They may be cute, but the population is way out of control. If you have been on the beaches of the cape and islands, you already know this.

You are going to see more and more seals wandering down main street if something is not done. They are devastating the fish population. I wouldn't want to be a fisherman right now.

And remember this: where there are large seal populations there are great white sharks...that is a fact.

Actually, this place is barely 2 blocks from the extensive marshes which connect to the Bay. There was no 2 mile walk.

Just what we need, another slippery hack feeding off the state till.

Great story, fabulious and heart warming ! That really made my day !

Sneaked - Snuck

Couldn't be Rosie, shes not clever enough to find her own food, and although she waddles, she could never make it 2 miles.

If she used mapquest, she'll be back again soon!
(don't worry, Maggie, that was just trout blood)

The seal rules, but the Rosie comments are classless. I'm no fan, but come on. I also think they should have let her stay on a bit longer if she really went through so much to get there. She is too cute!

Please please do not insult the seal by referring to it as Rosie!! yuk yuk yuk!!

I love this story; adorable seal! If you want to call her Rosie...Terrific! Who else has more endurance and a population that loves her! Right on, Rosie!

You're all crazy and gullible......no seal walked 2 miles. Did you ever see a seal walk??? Some fisherman caught it in his net and decided it would fun to see how gullible people are!

Maggie - look closer at the pic. If the seal had a fish in it's mouth, what do you think it did next with it? I guess he's just a messy eater. Looks like PETA will be prostesting seals now!!!

Maggie- her muzzle is probably red because they put her in a carrier with a metal wire door, which I'm sure she pushed her face against to try to get out, being a wild animal and all.

Way too cute to be Rosie. I think it took .006 seconds for the first Rosie post to appear. LOL

Save the Trout!!!

You Rosie haters are really something. You take a fun story and use it to spew your venom. Can't you just enjoy it? Happy New Year.
p.s. I hope Laura doesn't share your comments with her kids

Not Rosie it was a seal not a whale

This is obviously a case of espionage purported by the republican party to help bankrupt the Commonwealth (now run by the Democrats, thank heavens!) by eating up our resources. I say Boo to the republicans for such down handed tactics and yea to democrats for such a liberating move!

Wow, what went through this seals mind as she came across the hatchery. I am going to eat like a KING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it was O'Donnell, wouldn't it have to be a Sea-Pig?

Her last comment was:"Ill be back."

What is the purpose of tagging the seal? Just curious. I know they do it to track them, but in this case, why would it matter? Also what's the deal with the green on her back? I applaud the work animal rescuers do, but does the tagging and marking hurt? I sure would want that done to me, lol!

Hmmm. Seal blubber. Yum

The seals are a major problem on the cape, they make a mess and they eat all of the fish in the ocean. Fish populations are seriously down and the damage caused by the unchecked seal explosion will take years to recover - if it recovers at all. With seals also come sharks, they're only natural predator and that is a big part of the reason Great Whites are now being seen off the coastline these days.

Say what you want about the cute seal, but the truth is if you ask any biologist or someone who lives / makes their living on the cape working the ocean - they are a serious problem and a way has to be found to deal with them.

Just shows the double standard that exists with cute fuzzy animals. No one is talking about the innocent fish this seal slaughtered.

The seal will be back. In the pacific northwest, seals have camped in the mouth of rivers where salmon go to spawn and decimated their populations (they eat hundreds of pounds of fish a day). They've tried taking them 20 miles south and releasing them, but they just take a few days to swim back up to the buffet.
Their population really needs to be controlled because we've messed up the circle of life by killing their predators. Look at the beaches of Chatham and you'll see how many there are...it used to be a fishing mecca there and now there are none.

Hee! I guess that's what you call "ILLEGAL SEAFOOD." But still, just as fresh!

Actually, if they did in fact net her, that is where her muzzle got scraped up. I belong to an organization in California that rescues, rehabs, and then releases seals, and sea lions back to the ocean. When using nets to get these guys, they can struggle, and very often push against the nets. Their noses and muzzle area can get little superficial wounds as a result. Because it is a face wound, like us, it will bleed quite a bit, but heals very quickly.
And as for walking, we've picked up quite a few who have wondered much farther than that. Some on highways, some in hotel swimming pools. Most of the times it's because they are seriously wounded or sick. Then there are times, such as this, when they're just looking for a meal, and get into trouble.

One lucky seal! Of course, after being in a place with free fish that can't escape - and no competition for them - it's probably all downhill from there for her. At least now she can tell her kids about the time she was in "Seal Heaven" for a little while!

Seal looks very different than in his last music video. Maybe he was doing reseach for the upcoming album "Hatchery Snatchery", featuring Jon Hammond on skin flute.

I wonder why "team member Misty Niemeyer" thinks the critter had to hop a boardwalk? As noted above, the outflow stream from hatchery flows through the mini-golf course into a salt marsh. At high tide, it's a couple of hundred yards of stream to navigate, not miles of overland walking.