Is that a seal’s head in your luggage?

A traveller in the United States has reportedly been arrested after he tried to board a flight while carrying the severed head of a seal. According to the Boston Globe newspaper, the man, from Colorado, was stopped at Boston’s Logan Airport. Security staff reportedly discovered the gruesome find in a small canvas cooler, immediately alerting the relevant authorities. The man is reported to have claimed that he was a biology professor and, having found a dead seal on a beach, cut off its head to take it home “for educational purposes”. After extensive questioning the man was allowed to board the flight – without the head, which has been handed over to investigators – but still could face charges under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad