Cutest time of the year in B.C., seal pups return home
Video Journalist
Friday, September 7, 2018, 11:41 AM - The summer marks the time when seal pups are born on the shores of British Columbia, but sadly some of these babies are separated from their moms at a young age.
Experts say approximately 150 harbour seals will be taken to the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre over the span of the season.
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"The seals have been separated and we don't know why," says the rescue centre's manager, Lindsaye Akhurst. "Whether it is first time moms not knowing what to do, whether it is a tidal change, whether mom goes out to get food and the tide goes out and people come in and they get separated that way. There is a variety of different reasons."
Some of these babies are younger than five days old and will go through about two to three months of rehabilitation.
"When they first come in, we place them into blue bins and we let them be for a little while to relax," Akhurst says. "When the little guys come in to the centre, they are tube fed five times a day. When they get a bit bigger and stronger then we start to introduce fish in to their diet. We go through the fish school with them."
During that time they will be fed and monitored, until they have grown to a healthy weight, and are ready to be released.
"Once the seals are eating fish on their own, they are competing well with other seals in their pool, they have had a clean bill of health and have had blood work from our veterinarian we are ready to release them back in the wild," adds Akhurst.
