Another injured seal has washed up on our shores the second in the past six weeks.

The young male is only the fourth Harbour Seal to reach Bermuda in the past 150 years.

The animal was found lying on a beach at Ariel Sands by local residents on Sunday and was taken to the Bermuda Aquarium Museum and Zoo for treatment.

He has a deep laceration to his neck, caused by monofilament netting cutting into him.

Dr. Ian Walker, BAMZ acting principal curator, said: "He is fairly thin and has a constriction injury around his neck from a monofilament net which wrapped around it.

"This has caused a laceration which has cut down into the muscle. It's a three-quarter inch lesion all the way round.

"We've removed all the netting and he's on antibiotics right now, but is eating vigorously."

Dr. Walker said the seal has probably been swept along on currents from the north-eastern seaboard, most likely the US.

"This is the fourth Harbour Seal to reach Bermuda in 150 years, the last three of which have been seen in the past five years. My guess is he got caught on a current, and with two ending up here in the last six weeks I would think there's probably a few other seals out there looking for land."

The other Harbour Seal was spotted at Admiralty Park in Pembroke on January 2 and recovered two days later in Hamilton Harbour.

The seal dehydrated, exhausted and blind in one eye, was treated at BAMZ but died two weeks later. Stranded seals usually only have a ten percent survival rate.