Work continues at sanctuary during the lockdown
A LOT HAS CHANGED for Seal Rescue Ireland since the Courtown centre closed its doors to the public due to the Covid-19 crisis. However, CEO Melanie Croce is happy to report that the seals remain happy and healthy as care continues behind closed doors.
At the start of the pandemic, Melanie and her team decided to give something back and raised more than €1,100 for the charity supporting older people, ALONE.
‘The best way to make it through a crisis is collaboration and solidarity, so we figured that Alone has already been doing this work for many years and have the expertise and systems in place to aid older people at home and connect them with resources and support that they might need. We did a campaign for two of our seals, Prickly Pear and Cardinal, where 50 per cent of the adoption money would be going to Alone and in total we raised €1,185. ALONE was very grateful and hopefully this will lead to more collaboration in the future. The charity sector must pull together and show solidarity during this time’.
Over six weeks with doors closed, Melanie explained that with fundraising events cancelled and no visitors to the centre, Seal Rescue Ireland has taken a hit.
‘Covid-19 has had a big impact for us having to close our doors to the public on March 13 and we do rely very heavily on donations at the door and gift shop sales.
‘We had a number of different events scheduled, including our Easter sustainability market and our public seal releases, which are really big credit events with lots of donating. We have taken a hit, but we’ve really banded together in our team. Staff live in housing right near the centre, so we have basically quarantined into houses and we work between our houses visiting the centre in teams.
‘Wildlife rehab is considered an essential service and our work has to continue, regardless of whether we are open to the public. We’ve had three seals rescued in the last month so we are still busy at work, but we haven’t been able to recruit any new volunteers and we do rely heavily on interns to come and help us. We’ve had to cancel a number of summer interns start dates because they came from afar and there were travel restrictions. This means that the team is starting to dwindle, but we’re hoping we can start involving new interns and new volunteers soon’.
The public has been interacting with the charity online now, and seal releases have taken place through live streaming.
‘I think the seals are a little confused as to where all the visitors are but this is the end of grey seal season luckily, so it’s a really good time of year for this to happen as we are finishing up the rehab of the seals that we had in care.
‘We’ve special permission from gardaí to hold seal releases in our local area, we aren’t telling the public or inviting the public to those, instead we are live streaming our releases to involve our supporters as much as we can from the safety of their own homes.
‘We have been thinking ahead as to what we’ ll do going forward and we’re hoping that we an invite the public back to the centre again. We’re eager to make little changes to allow for social distancing. We might have to reorganise our tours a little bit, and have more of a circuit instead of starting in the gift shop and ending there’.
For now, Seal Rescue Ireland has just launched ‘Membership May’ to encourage supporters to become members via the new website.
‘Memberships is a growing programme focused on ongoing monthly support. People can donate whatever amount they want, as little as €5 and this support is critical for times like this as it spreads out our income. Usually the summer is when we make pretty much all of our money for the entire year through visitors, but because they can’t come in and that fundraising flow is hindered, ongoing support throughout the year is the best way to support struggling charities. We have been thankful and so proud of the support that we are getting, through our website worldwide. We are very grateful to those supporters’.
With over 1.2 million followers on TikTok, social media has been vital for Seal Rescue Ireland at this time.
‘There’s a lot of people trapped at home looking for things to do, we are trying to entertain and inform them and keep them engaged. We have started another initiative, an eight part series education project with episodes geared towards kids at home. It teaches them about seals and the threats to the marine environment and how we can all take part in protecting them. It also has take home instructions on activities to do at home. We know that a lot of parents and teachers are struggling to do remote learning, but this quarantine is a real opportunity for us all to rediscover and appreciate the nature in our own back garden.
‘Now that they are limited to the two kilometre radius, they are really starting to appreciate and discover all the plants and animals that are right there in their backyard. We are set to launch biodiversity kits, which can be ordered through the website and help with activities like planting seeds as well as identifying birds.
‘We’re lucky enough to live in Courtown, we’ve got the woods within our radius and it really is a biodiversity hotspot so we’ve been doing litter picks on our daily walks. With our own habitat restoration site, we’ve planted about 400 trees and we’re watching them come to bloom as they grow, and because it’s spring we’ve really been able to discover and appreciate it. Going forward, we are working with Wexford County Council and the Courtown Community Council with Wexford Walking Trails to enhance the biodiversity of the Courtown Woods and really promote it as an eco-tourism gem for Wexford. Once people can come here again we hope they’ll appreciate it and protect it’.
With about 20 seals still in care in Courtown, adoptions are open still on the website sealrescueireland.org with 50 per cent of adoption fees going to Alone.
Online fundraising is still taking place via social media and on the website, and the team say that whatever contribution you can make to helping them to continue their work in this trying time would be greatly appreciated.
WE HAVE BEEN THINKING AHEAD AS TO WHAT WE CAN DO GOING FORWARD AND WE’RE HOPING WE CAN INVITE THE PUBLIC BACK TO THE CENTRE