Heartbreaking moment young seal is found being suffocated by plastic waste it got tangled around its body while swimming off Connecticut coast

A young grey seal was found being suffocated to death by plastic waste while swimming off the Connecticut coast on Monday. 

The juvenile seal was reported to Mystic Aquarium's rescue team on Sunday and was found in a devastating state on Block Island the next day, Earth Day. 

Rescuers found the helpless animal tangled up in pink plastic gill netting and nylon rope, writhing around in pain. It is the third such case in the area in the space of a week. 

The young female was successfully places in a crate on the beach near North Light and transported on the Block Island Ferry to Mystic Aquarium's Animal Rescue Program. 

The rope had cut deep into the creature's flippers as it had tried to swim free of the netting. 

A juvenile grey seal was reported to Mystic Aquarium's rescue team on Sunday and was found in a devastating state on Block Island the next day, Earth Day

The young seal was found being suffocated to death by plastic waste on Block Island, the third case this week according to rescuers

Distressing footage shows the seal barking in pain as the Aquarium's marine specialists worked to free it from the coarse rope and netting. 

Six people has to assist veterinarian Natalie Noll as she examined the seal, took blood samples, and treated its wounds. 

After being freed the animal was responsive and in good condition, according to Sarah Callan, manager of Animal Rescue at Mystic Aquarium. 

'The dangerous thing with animals this young is they are growing at a pretty fast rate' Callan told the Boston Globe. 

'If we hadn't gotten to this animal when we did, there could have been very significant effects from this entanglement as it grew,' she explained. 

'It's very easy to disassociate the trash that we throw out at home because we don't see where it ends up,' Callan said of the rubbish that had endangered the seal's life. 

Distressing footage shows the seal barking in pain as the Aquarium's marine specialists worked to free it from the coarse rope and netting

Rescuers found the helpless animal tangled up in pink plastic gill netting and nylon rope

'Even though you might not be the one releasing it into the ocean or dropping it on the beach, a lot of the trash that we use every day ends up in the ocean one way or another.'

It is likely to be weeks before the young seal is given a clean bill of health and able to be returned to the wild.

'It is very fitting this seal happened to strand on Earth day,' Callan told the Globe.

'It makes its rescue and the story more significant to us. We can all learn from this case and it sends a great message that there is a lot of debris out there... Every individual effort plays a role in the big picture for these animals.'