A New Hampshire man says he proposed to his girlfriend at Boston's New England Aquarium with the help of a ring-carrying seal.

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Steve Johnson, 24, said he took his girlfriend, Laura Fuller, to the aquarium Saturday to participate in the Training for a Day program as a surprise for her 23rd birthday, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.

Johnson said he conspired weeks ahead of time with marine mammal trainer Lindsay Jones to have Fuller shown a painting created by a seal named Reggae followed by the revealing of a sign behind asking for Fuller's hand in marriage.

While Fuller was reading the message she was approached by a seal named Chacoda, who was carrying a chain with a toy ring in his mouth.

Johnson said he then pulled a real ring from his pocket and dropped to one knee as Fuller accepted his proposal.

"We put a lot of love into our first proposal," Jones said. "It's fun we can train the seals to help do things like this. One of the trainers was crying a little bit."