Andre the Seal Statue

Rockport, Maine

Died 1986

Andre was a harbor seal who spent his winters at the New England Aquarium in Boston and his summers in Rockport Harbor. Every spring for over 20 years the Seaquarium would release him and Andre would swim north to Rockport (150+ miles). It was always a high point for local residents when he reappeared. He was the honorary harbor master.

A granite statue of Andre was dedicated at harborside in 1978; Andre unveiled it himself. He went blind in 1985, and when he swam away in 1986, he never returned. Searchers found his body washed up on a remote part of Rockport beach. At the time, he was thought to be the oldest living harbor seal.

Andre will never have a successor, said the Rockport Chamber of Commerce, because "the Department of Environmental Protection will never allow it."

Andre was the subject of a lackluster 1994 feature film starring Tina Majorino (who later played the girlfriend of Napoleon Dynamite) and a sea lion instead of a seal.