First time in open sea for one of two released seals

TWO pups gave a seal of approval to Portelet beach on Saturday morning as they were released back into the wild by the GSPCA.

The GSPCA has released back into the wild two seals it had nursed back to health. But one of them, Shakespeare, who was rescued in Jersey, needed a bit of persuasion from head of marine mammals Geoff George to head to the sea at Portelet, as he had not been in open water previously. The other released seal, named Emilia, was rescued in Guernsey. (Pictures by Luke Le Prevost, 31990802)

Both Shakespeare and Emilia were underweight and emaciated when they were rescued last year.

‘Shakespeare was rescued in Jersey last October. He had a white coat at the time so was only days old when he was found. Emilia was discovered in Guernsey, near Castle Emplacement, on 1 December. Both were less than half their ideal body weight and extremely poorly when they arrived,’ GSPCA manager Steve Byrne said.

Mr Byrne said that the GSPCA had chosen to release the seals on Portelet because of the favourable coastal conditions.

‘We used to do the releases off-island near Jethou, but over Covid organising the transport for that became difficult. Portelet is a nice beach with plenty of rocks and it is safer than most other beaches, so it’s an ideal location.’

He added that getting Shakespeare into his travel crate to Portelet had been particularly challenging.

‘It’s his first time in the sea today. He loves the pool we have for the seals at the shelter but is very much the baby of the group. He’s very vocal and is usually the loudest.’

Emilia, who was rescued from the Castle Emplacement in December, heads for the sea. (31990800)

Geoff George, GSPCA’s head of marine mammals, said that managing Shakespeare and Emilia’s diets to get them back to a good weight had been challenging.

‘Initially we had to feed them through a tube every three hours to rehydrate them. We then moved them on to a mackerel soup, before starting to hand-feed them 20-30 solid herring and mackerel each day.’

Mr George added that both seals were now over 50kg, which was an ideal weight for them to be released back into the wild.

Following the two releases, the GSPCA now has four seal pups in its care, down from a high of eight earlier in the year. Mr Byrne said that they could be moved to the UK for a period while work takes place to construct a new wildlife hospital, which he hoped would be completed by this summer.

‘Donations are always welcome, or people can buy a brick as well. The new hospital will replace the old facilities we currently have,’ Mr George added.