offbeat: Seal that won’t stay in ocean bound for US zoo

A seal that wouldn’t stay rescued will be sent to a Detroit zoo to live out the rest of her life after touring the New Jersey shore in recent weeks.
The unnamed seal first stranded herself in Sand Hook, New Jersey’s northernmost ocean beach before being helped back into the water by rescuers. But she kept coming back ashore, over and over again, a few kilometers south each time.
Each time, animal rescue groups shooed it back into the water or treated it for illness or injury.
When people started petting it on a beach on Sept. 5, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center removed it from the ocean permanently because it had become too acclimated to humans.
The stranding center notified federal wildlife officials, who found a home for it at the Detroit Zoo.
The 45-kilogram seal left yesterday for the zoo, which will have a contest to name it.