helping SEALS
By Natalie Stahl
Every year West Hatch admits many grey seal pups and a few common seal pups too . These have often been injured in stormy weather or have found themselves separated from their mum and unable to feed or fend for themselves .
Over the last six years we have admitted a total of 382 seal pups , 74 of which have come in this seal season alone . Of the 382 pups , 336 were successfully rehabilitated and released .
The majority of seal pups that come into our care are from Wales or Cornwall , with a handful also coming from Devon , Dorset and Somerset . Initially they are observed in the field by our Inspectorate team or BDMLR ( British Divers Marine Life Rescue ) who will decide if they need to be rescued . Once it has been established that the pup genuinely needs help , they are transported to us .
Our seal season usually runs between September and April . Each pup stays with us for around three months and during this time they are treated , firstly in our indoor intensive care unit and , as they progress , they move onto one of our many pools . Initially with one other seal and eventually with up to nine others in our biggest pool . Here they are able to learn to compete for food , gain valuable fitness and weight before release .
Once eating for themselves , each seal receives 3kg of mackerel or herring a day split over three feeds . Seals are probably one of our more expensive animals to rehabilitate with our average monthly fish bill during the season being between £ 4,000 and £ 5,000 , and our average monthly water bill is around £ 4,000 as each pool also gets emptied and refilled daily to ensure good water quality .
The seals that are successfully rehabilitated are released in a quiet beach on the North Devon coast . Interestingly , a lot of the pups that come to us from Cornwall or Wales make their way back to the area they were originally found . This is amazing considering many of them come into the Centre still covered in their fluffy white coat ( lanugo ) which means they are under three weeks of age .
Each seal is fitted with an ID tag on their rear flipper , left for females and right for males . Each tag has a unique number on it that can be traced back to West Hatch .
Every seal has a unique coat pattern , a bit like our fingerprint . We take photos of each seal and share these images with Sue Sayer and the team at the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust ( CSGRT ); these are then added to their database and help to identify the individual seals .
The CSGRT actively monitors seal haul out sites in the South West and the ID tags and photos enable us to receive reports of sightings through post release monitoring , which is invaluable to us .
We have had many sightings of our seals , sometimes ten plus years following release . Getting these reports of our seals in the wild thriving and living happily makes all the hard work and emotions worthwhile .
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