For several weeks, federal wildlife officials have been investigating who stabbed a 300-pound elephant pup seal several times in a beach cove in Oregon.
The seal, which survived the attack, has largely recovered. Investigators say they have developed some solid leads about the attacker — and now they’re asking for the public’s help to identify the culprit.
The stabbing occurred on a cold evening, March 16, between 8 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. in Neskowin, Ore., on a beach along the Pacific Ocean, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday.
The seal began to heal, and by mid-April, it was showing no signs of lasting effects from the stabbing, according to Michael Milstein, a public affairs officer with NOAA Fisheries.
“Young elephant seals like this often spend time on their own, learning to hunt and growing larger, before eventually returning to breeding areas in and around the Channel Islands off Southern California,” he said.
Around that time, a team moved the seal from a busy port area to a more secluded beach at the northern tip of the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington State, Mr. Milstein said. It has not been given a name.
On Monday, the agency released a description and a sketch of the suspect.
Witnesses described the suspect as a white man, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with black-and-white hair and a large gap between his front teeth.
He was wearing aviator glasses with thick lenses, a thin blue-and-light-green fleece top, and a low-profile black cap with a logo depicting an orange four-track excavator with the word “timber” on it, NOAA said. He also wore dark trousers and lightweight hiking shoes or low boots.
The suspect was spotted in a parking lot next to the cove behind a condominium building, the agency said. Officials added that the inside of his dark blue 1990s Dodge or Chrysler van was cluttered, and that the rear passenger window on the driver’s side was covered in plastic.
The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, enacted in 1972, prohibits harassing, harming, killing or feeding wild elephant seals.
Violations can be prosecuted civilly or criminally, and they are punishable by up to a year in jail and $100,000 in fines.