Watch: Trey Flowers helped release a seal named after him back into the ocean
“I guess [she] can call me ‘Pops’.”
New England Patriot Trey Flowers was in Rhode Island Tuesday morning to cheer on his namesake, a 9-month-old harbor seal, as she raced home into the ocean.
“You’re about to be free today,” the Patriots player told the seal, who was being rehabilitated at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.
Each year the aquarium chooses a theme for the names given to the rescued animals taken in for rehabilitation. The theme for 2017 is “flowers,” so when a seal came into the aquarium’s care shortly after the Patriots won the Super Bowl, it was decided she had to be named for the defensive end.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQOecBzA-kZ/?taken-by=mystic.aquarium
Trey the seal was rescued in Rockaway, New York, before being taken to the Connecticut aquarium for rehabilitation. She is the first release of the year, officials said at Blue Shutters Beach.
When Flowers opened the crate containing the younger Trey, she quickly made her way toward the ocean.
“Later, nice to meet you!” Flowers called out.
Trey Flowers cheering on Trey the seal as she heads back to the ocean. #patriots pic.twitter.com/LEbwDOsUHq
— Angelique Fiske (@angeliquefiske) February 28, 2017
Flowers later said he thought the seal seemed aware of her surroundings when he let her out.
“She moved pretty swift, so I know she’s going to do well out there in the real world,” he said.
An aquarium official pointed out to Flowers that like the defensive end, Trey the seal seemed to be ‘quick off the line.”
“I guess [she] can call me ‘Pops’,” Flowers said with a laugh.
Watch the whole release below:
https://www.facebook.com/mysticaquarium/videos/10154553546497515/
