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January 3rd, 2009
A Strange year
60 seals were treated by the Sanctuary in 2008, making it the first time for many years that numbers have dropped. Grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) came down from 46 to 28 ~ mainly because the problem of very high tides washing away new born pups did not repeat itself this year. Seals getting entangled in [...]
July 28th, 2008
Animal Rescue reviews
52 animals were admitted in the first 5 months of 2008. Thankfully, seal arrivals fell slightly when compared with the same period as last year; 16 of the 22 cared for were grey seals (Haliochoerus grypus) and 6 were common seals (Phoca vitulina). 2 of the grey seals were badly tangled in netting and one [...]
Seal Sanctuary Pools
About 1000 seals have been treated here since 1974. Most have been returned to the wild after 3 or 4 months care. The fastest turn round was 10 minutes (he was perfectly healthy but sitting in the middle of a motorbike race track) and the longest was nearly 2 years. A few seals are too sick to be saved and around 2% have to be kept in captivity because we do not think they could survive if released. The seal sanctuary pools were built so that these animals could have as stimulating an environment as possible. Josephine, a common seal, is our oldest having been here since the mid 1970’s and Donna, a grey seal came in 1983. At the time we still had much to learn and because we tried so hard to make sure they survived we unfortunately also made them too tame for release. Others have injuries that would mean they probably could not cope: Wryneck has a deformed spine and Billy, Nooky and Popeye are blind (these seals may well be occupying one of the pre-release pools at the entrance).
What species of seals are cared for? Grey (or Atlantic) seals and common (or harbour) seals are the usual species and for the first 24 years they were in fact the only ones. Since then we have looked after bearded, ringed and hooded seals – all normally living in arctic waters.
