SAN DIEGO -- At least two people worked to free a baby harbor seal on Tuesday night from a gill net that was wrapped around its neck, 10News reported.

It is unclear if the people knew each other before the rescue, which violated federal law because seals are federally protected mammals and people are mandated to keep a distance from them.

Wildlife rescuers were worried the baby seal that showed up on the beach tightly ensnared in the fish net Sunday would die.

SeaWorld does have permission to save marine creatures but could not go onto the beach without interfering with the other seals, making them unable to help the baby seal.

A man told 10News that after sundown Tuesday he crawled close to the baby seal then grabbed it and pulled the net from around its neck. "It seemed like a pretty simple thing to resolve so my wife agreed to let me go. The two of us got in the car with a flashlight, a pair of shears and a towel and went down to the Children's Pool. It seemed that the sooner the net got off the better off the little seal would be," Steve Eddy said.

A witness reported that another man from Oceanside assisted Eddy.

The seal was born recently at the children's pool in La Jolla, which was one reason people were reluctant to try to help.

The children's pool is a small beach partially protected by a seawall. The original intention was to create a fully protected swimming area, but sand has filled in much of the area inside the wall and a colony of harbor seals now lives there.