
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 1, 1991                   TAG: 9104010214
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                                LENGTH: Short

ANOTHER SICK SEAL FOUND IN TIDEWATER; TESTS SCHEDULED

The discovery of an ailing harbor seal Sunday in a marshy area of Bennetts Creek marked the fifth time this year one of the seals has turned up in Virginia or North Carolina.

"It's so far inland," said C. Mac Rawls, executive director of the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach. "He was probably 15 to 20 miles from where you normally expect to find harbor seals in Virginia."

The seal, which was bleeding from lesions on its underside, was taken Sunday night to the museum, where a veterinarian was to examine it and run diagnostic tests.

Of the four other seals rescued in Virginia and North Carolina this year, three have died, the most recent from pneumonia, Rawls said. A fourth has recovered and may soon be released. All four were pups.

by CNB