Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Seal in beach rescue
Councillor comes to aid of pup found in distress
A THREE-week-old seal pup was rescued from a beach after being stranded for five hours.
The pup was found by Councillor Bill Bowles on Carnoustie beach at 8.30am yesterday.
Speaking to the Tele, he said he immediately notified the British Diver and Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) fearing for the pup’s safety.
He said that he was told that the best plan of action was to leave the pup alone in case the mother came back for it.
However, when he went back to check five hours later the pup was in a “distressed” state with no sign of the mother.
He then contacted the authorities again and a rescue mission was launched.
Mr Bowles said the seal pup would have died if the BDMLR hadn’t taken action.
He said: “The first time I phoned the BDMLR, they told me that I should leave it alone and wait to see if the mother came back for it.
“When I first saw the pup it seemed quite happy but when I went back five hours later it was in an extremely distressed state.
“It is a public beach and there are walkers and people with dogs going past so the situation was far from ideal.
“There were no tracks in the sand indicating that the mother had been there. If we hadn’t taken action then the seal pup would have died.
“I just wonder how it got there. It was so young that it can’t actually swim and its coat isn’t waterproof.”
A spokesman for the BDMLR confirmed they attended Carnoustie beach.
The spokesman said the pup has been taken to a special seal rehabilitation unit at the SSPCA’s Alloa base.
He said: “The pup was underweight and it was clearly needing treatment and fattened up before it could be released again.
“The seal would have probably been about three weeks to a month old.
“It was taken to the SSPCA in Alloa as they’ve got a great seal rehabilitation unit, which I think has about 50 pups at the moment.
“The seals don’t have to be in water at that age, so there’s no issue there.”