WESTBROOK (AP) – The National Marine Fisheries Service on Tuesday terminated its authorization for New England’s largest seal rescue and rehabilitation organization to respond to stranded seals and rehabilitate them before returning them to the wild.

Representatives of the federal agency arrived at the Marine Animal Lifeline’s facility in Westbrook to inform the organization that it violated several provisions of its authorization. Because of those violation, sick seals could have been returned to the wild.

Approximately 20 seals are being removed and sent elsewhere for care, said Patricia Kurkul, Northeast regional administrator for the fisheries service.

“We’re taking this action to immediately reduce any risks to wildlife posed by continued operation of the MAL facility,” she said in a statement.

Marine Animal Lifeline is a private, nonprofit organization that until Tuesday had the federal agency’s blessing to respond to stranded seals.

Marine Animal Lifeline typically responds to nearly 500 injured and sick animals a year.

Dianna Fletcher, spokeswoman for MAL, said the federal agency issued the press release before founder Greg Jakush learned of the problems. Jakush and officials were trying to sort out what went wrong, Fletcher said.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said approximately 80 seals were released without appropriate testing to ensure they were not a danger to other wildlife.

The primary concern is the presence of a pathogen known to cause a highly contagious distemper-like illness in seals. Outbreaks of the virus in European seal populations killed 18,000 seals in 1998 and 22,000 seals in 2002.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is funding the additional sampling of the morbillivirus.

About 300 seals have been tested throughout the Northeast, and some have tested positive for the pathogen, the agency said.