Wow, what a marathon weekend and start to the week we just had! With both rehab facilities still at capacity, we are being very diligent with monitoring animals to keep the public and the animal at a safe distance from one another. We are also relocating when necessary. In addition to staff time, our amazing volunteers put in a total of 46.5 hours of time between Saturday and Monday with seals on the beaches! We simply couldn’t do this work without them! Here are some photos from just a few of the many seals we have responded to since Saturday. We also had a couple of deceased harbor seals as well, but for this post we are only posting some of the live ones.
This emaciated female harbor seal weanling was on North Hampton Beach for 2 days, near the Beach Plum. She is likely struggling to figure out how to forage on her own and also had a wound underneath one of her front flippers. On Day 2 we decided to relocate her to a quiet spot.
We cleaned her wounds, gave her some fluids to help perk her up, flipper tagged her, and released her in a nice quiet spot.
After fluids, almost immediately you can start to see the seal regain some “hydration rings” around her eyes.
After relocation, she rested on the marsh flats for a while, but the following morning she was seen actively swimming!
We received a report of a weanling harbor seal at North Beach in Hampton. The lifeguards set up a perimeter for us and our field responders monitored her and talked with the public all afternoon. We decided to mark her head with pink paint stick so she can be easily identified for the next week, before it rubs off. Once we marked her, she retreated to the water!
Here she is, resting on the sand before we marked her. She was thin, but alert and responsive other than that.
This very small harbor seal weanling was reported to us on Plum Island in Newbury at Annapolis Way. He was very thin, but alert and responsive, and even had small hydration rings. He did have some abscesses on his body and was coughing a bit. He was still there the next morning, but retreated to the water a couple hours later as the beach started getting busy.
This weanling harbor seal was also reported on Plum Island, in Newburyport at 69th Street. She was alert and responsive, and much heftier than the other Plum Island seal. We love to see that! She was still there at dark, but when the field responder returned to the location this morning, she was gone!
