A partially-blind seal which was rescued after being washed onto Bermuda's shores has died after two weeks on the Island.

The body of the ailing creature was found at Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ) by acting principal curator Ian Walker on Thursday morning.

He told The Royal Gazette: "The day before, the animal was showing positive signs of improving, swimming around, actively involved in its environment.

"But the following morning I came in and found him dead. That's usually the way these things go."

The luckless seal – only the third of its kind to be seen in Bermuda's waters in 100 years – is thought to have been carried here on a Gulf Stream eddy from the US northeastern seaboard or Canada.

Dr. Walker gave him only a ten percent chance of survival as he was badly dehydrated and exhausted from his journey, his body covered in cuts thought to have been inflicted on the reefs.

The animal was spotted on January 2 at Admiralty Park in Pembroke, with witnesses saying he was chased by dogs along the beach and may have had bottles thrown at him.

After his rescue off Hamilton Harbour two days later, the seal was put in a quarantine tank at the aquarium and given fluid and antibiotics in the hope that he could be quickly released back into the wild from the US.

He was not given a name, as Dr. Walker explained: "We actually don't name animals that come in.

"One of the reasons, from a rehabilitation standpoint, is that we want to get these creatures back out to the wild. We try to stay hands-off and we only handled him once a day."

The stray mammal was blind in his right eye, about 5ft long and probably quite old. A four-and-a-half hour dissection of his body discovered that, unusually for a seal, he did not have parasites.

But the animal had a larger than normal heart and an inflamed pancreas. "It's possible that his heart simply gave out," said Dr. Walker. "Certainly the stress (of being swept here) is not going to help."

The vet added: "The thing with these guys is when you get a call, you know you have to go and respond, because they don't have a chance in Bermuda's waters. It's totally a foreign environment to them. Ultimately, there's really no food here for him.

"It triples your workload while they are in but the people who work at the aquarium are usually passionate about animals so they'll gladly do it. You learn more every time you do it. That's kind of why you do it."