Team providing crucial care for struggling seals
AN inspiring team of volunteers are giving up their time to help save one of the most beautiful and best-loved animals that can be found on our North East coast.
Tynemouth Seal Hospital has saved the lives of hundreds of seals since it opened five years ago, with volunteers showing incredible dedication when it comes to ensuring that every seal gets the help it needs.
Alan Harrison, 35, is one of the volunteer medics who nurses sick seals back to health. Alan has been volunteering at the hospital for three years.
When he’s not looking after seals, Alan is a teacher three days a week at Bede Academy in Blyth, and he also has two young children aged 10 and five. He fondly recalls growing up on the North East coast and the buzz of excitement that would surround a seal sighting.
“I was just really struck by the beauty of these animals. They’re really wonderful to watch,” he says.
Alan was inspired to join the seal hospital team after witnessing the rescue of a tiny seal pup on a beach, when he immediately contacted its rescuers to see how he could help.
“I can’t solve all of their problems,” he admits, referencing the harmful plastic pollution that is becoming an increasing problem in seal habitats.
“But I can solve a little problem. I can make a little difference.”
There are a number of reasons why a seal might end up being taken in at the hospital – from being injured by dogs or other seals, to broken bones or infections, sometimes caused by pollution such as fishing material or plastic waste.
A typical shift at the hospital can be up to three hours, and involves lots of fish – the three seals currently in residence eat around 14 kilograms of herring between them every single day – and inevitably, a lot of cleaning their pens too.
The team of volunteers working at the hospital display incredible dedication to caring for the seals, which includes working with the network of seal rehabilitation centres across the UK to make sure that no seal goes without help.
Because of more people spending time walking on the beaches during lockdown, cases of seals in need rose dramatically at the height of the pandemic. At one time, there wasn’t a single spot left at a seal hospital in the whole of the UK.
Tynemouth Seal Hospital went above and beyond to care for injured seals – even sending a seal to a sanctuary in Cornwall and back on its own private plane.
Nature-lovers in the region have been following the journeys of the three grey seals currently in their care – Porridge, Waffles and Haggis.
Porridge and Waffles came to the hospital in November last year as tiny pups, weighing just 11 kilograms each. Porridge was rescued from Beadnell in Northumberland with puncture wounds, most likely from an adult seal or a dog, while Waffles was found in the Redcar area and was thought to have been abandoned by her mother.
The smallest seal at the hospital, Haggis, had a risky operation to remove a broken bone in his rear flippers. Now, thanks to the care of Alan and his fellow volunteers, the seals are now three times heavier, and Porridge and Waffles were set to be released back into the sea this weekend.
For volunteers like Alan who have given so much time to caring for them, the experience of setting them free comes with mixed emotions.
“It’s always with great relief. It’s a time of great celebration for the seals, and also for us as a team. But we’re sad to see them go,” Alan admits.
“Seals are adorable – there’s no doubt about that. But they are also incredibly powerful, territorial animals.”
He advises people to take a pair of binoculars to the coast to watch the seals from a distance, and for dog owners to keep dogs on a lead.