00:00:10:12 - 00:00:28:07 Unknown So our rehabilitation program is designed to give seals the best chance of survival when they go back to the wild. So this is pup A, the first one of the season. She's a harbour seal. And this is when we'd expect them to come in, June through August. So this one's nose was a little bit dry. It's probably not been fed by mum for a while. 00:00:28:18 - 00:00:45:05 Unknown And we can still see the umbilical cord. So it's probably only a couple of days old at most. We've just weighed her now. She's about eight kilos. She had wandered quite a long way from the shore. And she was on her own, so mum had definitely left her. She's a little bit underweight. But otherwise she's looking quite healthy. 00:00:45:23 - 00:01:08:19 Unknown We work the best for seals that would otherwise not have much of a chance. The first seal was brought to Exploris in 1989 and we have since then rescued and returned to the sea over 500 seals. When the seals come in to Exploris, obviously we want to get them back out into the wild and we want to do it as quickly as possible. 00:01:09:11 - 00:01:25:12 Unknown We had Digory (the seal) last year, he really quick, he came in and was eating fish super fast. Within a couple of months he was in the pool and then a couple months later he was released. So that's really what we want. The shortest amount of time spent in captivity because we don't want them to get used to humans. We don't want them to assosiate us with their food. 00:01:25:23 - 00:01:47:24 Unknown So the sooner they get out there, the sooner they can get back to being a seal. The majority of seals that end up at the Exploris seal Sanctuary are usually rescued when they're under a few weeks old. And there's a variety of reasons why they might end up there. So first and probably the most frequent is actually just disturbance from crowds on the beach and the mothers get scared off and then they abandon the pup. 00:01:48:12 - 00:02:18:12 Unknown Second, we've also had cases of dog attacks. Third, they might be infested with ticks or worms, and finally, they might just be underweight because they're not managing to forage very well and so need some help. So when we get calls about the seal pups that are on their own, on their beach, we will make a quick assessment based on their body condition and if they've got any injuries, if they're severely underweight, that sort of thing. 00:02:18:17 - 00:02:35:15 Unknown And those cases, we would generally act a lot quicker. If they look otherwise well and healthy, we will put them on a watch list. And that means that we'll go and check on them again in 24 hours and we will then review the situation again just to make the best decision about whether or not mum is coming back for them. 00:02:36:03 - 00:03:14:11 Unknown and if they need to come into to us for some help. Seals face a number of threats; from human disturbance, pollution, how our climate is changing. So we need to protect them for these reasons. But in addition to that, they also serve as good indicators as into the health of our oceans overall. So it's also really important to have these species present so that we know that our oceans are doing well So when seal pups arrive at Exploris, we first get them a health check, we get a vet to see them very quickly and we'll do things like take their weight, their temperature that sort of thing, and we'll continually monitor those for the first few days. 00:03:15:08 - 00:03:40:06 Unknown So today we will just go and give Pup A some fluids. And that will be just fluids and glucose for the rest of today. Helps the really sickly looking pups perk up pretty quickly and start to build up tomorrow some fish soup into that as well. Once she's eating by herself and reaches about ten, 15 kilos, we'll move her out to the pool and that's where they get their chance. 00:03:40:06 - 00:03:59:06 Unknown then to to learn to what is like to be a seal again and they have to learn to feed themselves, compete with other seals. And then from there, it's usually a couple of months and we get them up to the release weight, we're looking for about 30 kilos and everything else to be fine. That's when we'll be looking to release them. 00:03:59:06 - 00:04:05:14 Unknown Hopefully this pup doesn't take too long, but she will eventually be released back into the wild, hopefully sooner rather than later. 00:04:08:18 - 00:04:34:01 Unknown Over the last year and a half, we've managed to release and track 17 Harbour seals, so the tags that we use as GPS phone tags and they are basically a kind of glorified mobile phone that's super hardy and waterproof. We attach the tags to the seal using a fast acting superglue, which we put on the back of the head, and the tag will stay here for several months. 00:04:34:01 - 00:04:38:18 Unknown But when the seal moults, the tag will just drop off and then the seal will no longer have a tag attached. 00:04:42:23 - 00:05:03:01 Unknown In terms of how they do after they release. We're getting some really nice data. We now know that they're able to dive immediately to depths of over 30 meters and sometimes up to 150 meters. The durations of their dives are usually between three and 5 minutes, which is good. And from the accelerometer that we have on some of the tags, we know that they're making the kind of head movements associated with catching fish. 00:05:04:02 - 00:05:24:01 Unknown In addition, because we get tracks of up to six months and sometimes even longer, we know the seals are surviving for at least this long. And this is really promising because it just supports the work of the rehabilitation team here and Exploris seal sanctuary. If you see a seal on the beach, our advice is leave it alone. 00:05:24:01 - 00:05:45:06 Unknown Give it plenty of space, at least 100 meters, really. Typically, the animals are probably just resting, the mum's at sea foraging. And if you're around crowding, this might prevent them coming back and that can result in abandonment. If you have a dog, can you keep it on the lead and then finally, if you do think the seal is ill, then I would phone in to the rescue center and those guys will advise you on what to do. 00:05:46:19 - 00:06:10:16 Unknown So in terms of the movements and behaviours, we've been getting some really nice results. So of the 17 individuals that we have tracked so far, we've actually seen a huge amount of variability in where they go. Some individuals stay very local and this is kind of what we expected based on what we know from adults. However, what was surprising to us was that a number of the seals actually made huge explorations and went much further than we anticipated. 00:06:11:18 - 00:06:39:02 Unknown So we had individuals travel across the Irish Sea to North England and Wales and even Scotland, whilst other seals followed the coast around Ireland. And this is something really exciting because it wasn't something we expected. And so together, this information is really useful to both conservationists, management teams, but also policymakers. And it can help them to improve the efforts in protecting our oceans and ensure for a more sustainable future.