DATE: Thursday, May 1, 1997                 TAG: 9705010488

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   37 lines

STRANDED SEAL THAT WASHED UP AT BEACH IMPROVES IN BALTIMORE

The baby harp seal that somehow made it all the way to Virginia is holding his own, doctors at the National Aquarium in Baltimore reported Wednesday.

The seal, a variety that normally inhabits arctic waters, washed up on the beach at the Fleet Combat Training Center at Dam Neck early last week.

After a call from base police, the Virginia Marine Science Museum Stranding Team gave the seal pup around-the-clock emergency care and had it flown to the National Aquarium for long-term treatment.

It is not suffering from a bacterial infection, as team members initially feared, but was constipated and sustained a trauma to the cornea of one of its eyes, said Dr. Rogers Williams, an aquarium veterinarian.

Both problems were fixed, Williams said, declaring the seal ``bright and alert.'' But he was guarded about the long-term prognosis.

``This is a very critical time for these little guys,'' Williams said, adding that the seal was probably separated from its mother and unable to fend for itself. ``Left to his own devices, he wouldn't have made it.''

Virginia Beach is the scene of more than 100 marine mammal strandings a year. Most of them don't survive.

And from the seal pup's condition - it was about half its normal weight, shivering and breathing shallowly - it appeared it would be another of the unlucky ones.

A pilot for a volunteer organization, the Environmental Air Force, flew the tiny seal to Baltimore.

It is being tube fed a mixture of milk replacement and ground fish five times a day and now has begun to gain some weight.

Williams said it was too early to predict whether the seal could be released to the wild.

``He's an awful little guy. We'll make that decision later. If we're lucky enough to get him back on his flippers.''

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