Marina’s on the mend after boulder-trap ordeal
A seal trapped under a large boulder for two days is recovering well after being taken to a specialist centre.
Marina, previously known as Miracle, was rescued from Port Talbot after engineers raised a one-tonne block she became stuck under.
Wildlife specialists said she was now doing “really well” and would be released back into the wild in a few months’ time.
Paul Oaten, supervisor at the RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife centre in Taunton, where Marina is being looked after, said: “She is doing very, very well. She’s being assisted-fed three times a day at the moment. She is in a dry pen at the moment which we flood at certain times.
“When she first arrived she was not too bad considering she had been through a lot.”
Paul, aged 55, added that Marina was given a course of antibiotics and weighed 14kg when she arrived. He added that she would not be released until she reached 35kg, which would be in a “couple of months”.
A statement on the centre’s Facebook page said: “She is still being assist-fed fish as she is unsure how to eat for herself but we hope she will master the skill very soon. “As you can see she is very happy.” The seal became trapped on November 5 after it is believed she made her way under the seawall boulders and dropped down into a small cavity, from which she could not escape.
Officers from RSPCA Cymru tried to free her but she could not be reached.
The rescue operation was hampered by the dark conditions and uneven surface for the rigging, but everything fell into place shortly after 7pm on November 7.
RSPCA Cymru worked with Associated British Ports, Sea-Lift Diving, British Divers’ Marine Life Rescue, the RNLI and Neath Port Talbot Council to complete the rescue.