Seal Rescue, Rehabilitation and Release
We rescue over 70 injured Seal pups from local coastal waters each year and bring them to our Seal Hospital to undergo a rehabilitation programme. It costs over £2,000 to rehabilitate just one seal pup and get them fit for their release back into the wild, so we are extremely grateful our guests continue to support the work we do.
Grey Seal pup season is from September - March (although this year we released our last pup in late July and have had our first pup in early August!), this is when our hospital and nursery pools are the busiest!
During the rehabilitation process, the first place our rescued pups go to is our Seal Hospital. They will be put in our isolation pens, which allows the team to be able to closely monitor progress, give medication and also feed the pup. When they are feeling brighter, the pup will move to the main hospital pens, which has the facility to be filled with water when the pup is ready for swimming.
Our guests are able to visit the hospital to see how our patients are doing and get a real behind the scenes experience of a working seal rescue hospital.
Once the pup is free from infection and a healthy weight, we then introduce them to the Nursery Pools, where they are often put in with another pup, which allows them to learn how to behave around other seals. After this, they are introduced into our main Seal Pool to learn how to interact with adult seals as they would in the wild, and how to fight for their fish - all the skills they need to know for when they get released.
Once the animal care team are satisfied the pup is at a healthy weight and ready, the Sanctuary releases them back into the wild.
Maggot!