Photograph of a seal sitting on the kayak launch at 72nd Street and Riverside Park by Eric Carvin/AP

Earlier this week, iReport had a video of a really cute harbor seal spotted off Red Hook [Via Brownstoner] - the video is below (it's an auto-play and it's seriously awww-worthy)! Besides being ridiculously cute, the video brings back a flood of memories of various seal sighting in the city. There was Gowana, the harp seal in the Gowanus Canal, a harbor seal in Brooklyn, another harp seal near Battery Park, and a harbor seal on the Upper West Side.

While seal sightings are rare, a yesterday, a harbor seal was spotted on the West Side of Manhattan yesterday, and at top is a photograph. A parks spokesperson told WNBC "the seal, found on a river bank, looks healthy and will probably just go back into the water." Could the seal have decided to head from Red Hook to Manhattan?!?

The Riverhead Foundation is a non-profit which rescues stranded seals; it has a gallery of harp seals it has released and even lets people "adopt" different animals, like harp seals, tortoises and dolphins.