A pedestrian makes his way down Water Street in the Woods Hole village of Falmouth, Massachusetts. The village is a destination for visitors eager to explore the public side of some of the most famous marine sciences research institutions in the world, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Marine Biological Laboratory. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)

The seals living at the Woods Hole Science Aquarium on Cape Cod welcomed an unexpected, unofficial and unsanctioned visitor Wednesday morning: a woman who decided to take a dip in the seal pool.

The woman scaled a safety barrier and hopped into the water alongside the seals shortly after the enclosure opened to visitors Wednesday morning, according to WHDH. A witness told the network the woman “got off her bike, went around the edge, and boom, in the water.”

Teri Frady, a spokesperson for the aquarium in Falmouth, said that after staff pulled the woman from the water, she hopped on a bike and rode away, WHDH reported.

“This is the first full-blown, middle-of-the-day, diving-in-the-pool, everybody-can-see event” that Frady could remember, she told the network.

Falmouth police caught up with the woman, the department told Boston.com, and transported her to Falmouth Hospital for a mental well-being evaluation.

Found in 1875, the Woods Hole aquarium is the oldest marine aquarium in the country, its website said. It is federally owned and operated by the National Marine Fisheries Service, more commonly known as NOAA Fisheries.

The aquarium only recently reopened on July 5 after more than two years shuttered. And after four years with an empty seal habitat, the enclosure is now home to two harbor seals — Bubba and Kitt — the aquarium said.

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