The Vancouver Aquarium welcomed its first rescued harbour seal pups of the year last weekend, including one new aqua celebrity, a pup named Red Square.
The seal was found in Finnerty Cover (near Victoria, B.C.), displaced from its mother for at least a day. He was found by a resident on a private beach, and was reportedly suckling on a log, before the Aquarium's Rescue Centre team arrived take him to safety.
"Although he arrived underweight and malnourished, he was a fighter and very vocal, which are positive signs," said Lindsaye Akhurst, manager of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.
"Provided we can stabilize him, the plan will be to provide him with the nourishment he needs to gain strength and weight, teach him how to forage and, hopefully, return him to his natural habitat in the next few months."
The Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre team rescues, rehabilitates and releases nearly 150 animals. While most of the patients are harbour seal pups, the veterinary team has also provided medical treatment to elephant seals, sea otters, sea lions, whales, and porpoises, many of whom were successfully released back into the wild.
Each year, the Rescue Centre takes suggestions for a naming theme that is adopted for the summer season to guide the names of each rescued seal. This season, seal pups will be named after celestial bodies, which was suggested by the Rescue Centre’s supporters.
