A premature baby seal pup, found struggling to survive on Sargeant Bay beach, is now healthy and gaining weight at the Vancouver Aquarium, thanks to the help of Halfmoon Bay's Laura Zanini and her children.
Zanini took the day off work July 18 to mourn the one-year anniversary of her father's death. She went to the beach with her sons, six-year-old Atticus and three-year-old Oscar, to reflect and spend some quality time. Shortly after getting to the beach, the family spotted a young seal pup that seemed to be in trouble.
"We were there at about eight in the morning. I went with my two little guys and we saw this seal pup and it was teeny tiny and it still had all its white fur. We had someone call conservation because we didn't have a cell phone, and they said leave it on the beach," Zanini said. "So we left it and we decided to go check up on it every hour or two just to see how it was doing, and it wasn't looking too good."
Zanini decided to place a few more calls.
"I ended up calling everybody. I called conservation again, I called the Ministry of Environment, Fisheries, you name it, and I finally got in touch with Marine Mammal Rescue. They had me send some photos so they could assess it, and they said it looked like a preemie. You could still see the umbilical cord, and she was dehydrated and the mother, I guess, wasn't coming back," Zanini said.
Members of Marine Mammal Rescue, which runs out of the Vancouver Aquarium, decided the young seal pup needed more help.
"So they booked a flight for her on the 5:30 p.m. flight on Harbour Air and they told me to go pick her up," Zanini recalled.
She went back to the beach with a cat carrier and followed the rescue centre's instructions on how to place the seal pup inside for transport.
"So I picked her up and I put her in the carrier and she lived in my bathroom for three hours while we waited for her flight, and then we drove her to the airport and off she went," Zanini said.
Once the pup arrived at the Vancouver Aquarium, manager Lindsaye Akhurst knew they had done the right thing.
"She came in at just under six kilos, which is super small for these guys. The actual birth weight for harbour seals around here is usually around 10 plus kilos, so she came in very small," Akhurst said.
The seal, which was given the name Arugula at the aquarium, had fur on her body that is usually lost in utero and was missing most of her teeth, which Akhurst said is another sign she was premature.
She said Arugula was very dehydrated and if she had stayed on the beach much longer she probably would have died.
Zanini found the whole experience and the timing of it ironic.
"What's really ironic is that it happened on the one year anniversary of my Dad's passing. We found this little baby and we saved this seal and it was just weird timing. It was very emotional because I wasn't expecting that," Zanini said.
Akhurst said this is the time of year seals are giving birth and notes it's not uncommon to find seal pups on beaches right now.
This month alone the Vancouver Aquarium has rescued eight seal pups off of Sunshine Coast beaches.
However, Akhurst said not all baby seals left on beaches need help.
"Moms definitely do leave their pups on the beaches, but not quite for a day or two," she said. "Sometimes they can leave them for up to eight hours, or if there is a tidal change or something they will wait for that - basically just enough time to go out and forage. So a lot of times we do just observe these animals to ensure that the mom isn't coming back before we actually do plan a rescue."
Currently the Vancouver Aquarium's rescue centre has 67 seals in its care and they expect more to come in during pupping season, which runs until the end of August.
She advises anyone who finds a seal pup on the beach to stay away from it, as activity on a beach near a seal pup can deter the mother from returning.
She also encourages people to call the Marine Mammal Rescue line at 1-604-258-SEAL to report sightings and get more information on what to do. After regular working hours, you can call the emergency line at 1-604-862-1647.
"It's best to call us because we can assess the situation. With digital cameras and camera phones we can get pictures sent to us and we can make an assessment that way," Akhurst said.
The aquarium's rescue centre is run entirely on donations and Akhurst notes it costs about $3,000 to rehabilitate one seal. If you would like to donate you can go to their website at www.vanaqua.org or call 1-604-659-3474.
Akhurst expects Arugula to be released back into the wild within the next few months, after she has learned to socialize with other seals and forage for her own food.
