Seal releases now and then!

Tuesday was a very special day for 3 seal friends who were released back into the wild after spending time in rehabilitation at not one, but 2 wildlife rescue centres! All were rescued in Cornwall back in January 2009 by British Divers Marine Life Rescue Medics or National Seal Sanctuary staff, and as the Seal Sanctuary's hospital was without water after pipes froze during a particularly cold snap, all 3 pups were taken to West Hatch wildlife hospital for their initial treatment. On 9th April RSPCA Wildlife Supervisor, Shawn Clements, arranged for the 3 seals to be transferred to Gweek for the final stage of their rehabilitation. Here they came into contact with the adult residents and learned the final set of skills they'd need for life back in the wild. Just before their release Sue and Chris who had participated in Julia's rescue visited her at Gweek and met Ren and Stimpy for the first time. These photos were taken in nursery pools 3 and 4 just before their release.

NSS08 62029 'Ren' & 'Julia' NSS08 62030 were best of friends in their NSS pool (Left) : NSS08 62027 'Stimpy' with 2 missing claws (Right)

Julia's rescue had been a particularly dramatic one that had begun with Sue spotting Julia at the back of the mainland haul out beach. Click here to read about her rescue.

Julia before her rescue, entangled in discarded or storm damaged net (Left) : First out - a fine, fit and healthy Julia on her big release day! (Right)

Release day dawned bright and sunny, which made perfect shooting conditions for the BBC Blue Peter camera crew who filmed the release. Julia, with her netting scar still visible, was first out of the trailer and she quickly made her way down to the sea and headed through the crashing breakers into the open ocean.

Julia makes easy work of the large breakers at high tide (Left) : Presenter Joel Defries interviews Claire for the Blue Peter film crew (Right)

Ren soon got the idea and slowly followed Julia. When Stimpy realised that he had been left behind, he rushed after Ren, catching him up just as they reached the sea. All 3 seals have beige rear flipper tags - Julia on the left as she is female and males Ren and Stimpy on their right rear flippers.

Julia is followed by her friend Ren down to the sea (Left) : Stimpy in hot pursuit of Ren - not keen to be left behind (Right)

For the first time, photo ID shots of all the seals' fur patterns have been taken prior to release from the Seal Sanctuary. This will help Cornwall Seal Group track the seals once they are returned to the wild. It's fine if the seals return within 3 or 4 years, as their flipper tags are still readable, but after this time, the paint used for the numbers tends to wear off, so we then have to rely on fur patterns to identify the seals. Post release monitoring of seals back in the wild provides valuable information about the health and survival rates of rehabilitated seals.

A huge number of tagged seals have already been spotted in 2009, but the most important one is a seal known to Cornwall Seal Group as 'Rabbit F' or S16 on their photo identification database. An unusually marked female, S16 has a very plain mid grey back, only her very pretty spotty belly gives away that she is a female! She was first identified in 2001 and we were delighted in 2008 when she was seen with a pup at the back of one of the breeding coves. By the time she was spotted doing stretches on the mainland haul out beach this month, she had already been seen a total of 65 times. Only on the 66th time though, as she was doing big curled up stretches did the camera reveal that she does in fact have a brown flipper tag!

S16 is named after 2 small white blotches on the left side of her neck (Left) : S16 stretching to show her brown rear flipper tag (Right)

The last brown flipper tag was used by the Seal Sanctuary in 1999, which would make 'Rabbit f' 10 years old, but as she was thought to be 3 or 4 when she was first photographed in 2001, she could be as old as 12! This makes her the oldest rehabbed seal from the National Seal Sanctuary known to be surviving in the wild and the second Gweek release to be having pups (the first being Puffa). This is fantastic tribute to all the people who have worked on the animal care staff at the Seal Sanctuary over the years and their medical protocols, which clearly give seals a real second chance back in the wild.

Cornwall Seal Group members are extremely grateful to all the staff from the National Seal Sanctuary and West Hatch Wildlife Hospital for all the excellent care they provide for these seals. Thanks too, to British Divers Marine Life Rescue Medics who volunteer their time and skills to rescue seals in need of a helping hand.

Cornwall Seal Group members volunteer hundreds of hours of their time to watch over the seals around the Cornish coast, especially at pup time! If you would like to support the work of Cornwall Seal Group, you can email sue@cornwallsealgroup.co.uk, to arrange to send a cheque or a contribution via paypal.