Meet the seals from East Winch RSPCA Wildlife Centre which suffered ‘devastating injuries’ due to flying discs
An RSPCA centre which plays a key role in taking in injured or orphaned seals has described a rise in cases involving wounds caused by entanglements.
The East Winch RSPCA Wildlife Centre takes in the most amount of seals out of any rehabilitation venue in the UK, with between 150 and 200 admitted a year.
It has become quite famous for its seals, with currently 24 in its care. The majority of them are suffering from some sort of wound, as staff warn people about flying discs along the coast.
Alice Puchalka, deputy manager at the centre, said: “We get a lot of entanglements come into the centre, especially flying rings, which are now illegal on the North Norfolk coast.”
Wounds from embedded rubbish around seals’ necks tend to be the worst cases that staff see. Alice added: “Sometimes, I just don’t know how they survive.”
Evangelos Achilleos, centre manager at RSPCA East Winch, said: “Here at the wildlife centre we have seen firsthand the devastating injuries caused by discarded or lost plastic flying rings.
“This small toy can cause so much damage when caught around a seal, and we only see the ones who are thankfully rescued.
“It’s just awful to think that there will be others out there who have suffered a sad fate because of man-made items polluting our seas.
“Rehabilitation of an adult seal can cost wildlife hospitals up to £10,000-£15,000, all because of a toy that costs just 33p to make.”
The centre is urging people to sign a petition to ban flying rings in the UK. It can be found by clicking here.
ABOUT THE SEAL SANCTUARY
The centre has three sections – isolation, where seals go when they first come in; the intermediate, where they go when they are eating more solid foods, can be around water and are increasing their weight to enable them to be released; and pools outside for when they are nearly ready to be released.
East Winch RSPCA gets a budget from the national charity. However, it relies on other seal organisations to bring them into the centre, such as British Divers Marine Life Rescue, which sends crews out to monitor the animals on the beach.
It also works very closely with the Friends of Horsey Seals, who do a similar job.
After rehabilitation, common seals are released with the permission of the Sealife Cetre on the beach at Hunstanton, and the grey seals are released at Wells.
When seals first go into the East Winch centre, they have tubes fed into their stomachs on a regular basis to rehydrate them as a lot of them come in emaciated.
This gives them the calories they need, before staff ease them onto solid foods such as liquidised fish soup, then fish.
MEET SOME OF THE SEALS
The newest common seal addition to the centre is Tiddlywink, a “dinky” pup who came as a 7.7kg newborn orphan with her umbilical cord still attached after being found by a member of the public near Holbeach, Lincolnshire on June 7.
Because she is so little, she tries to suckle people’s wellies who go in to feed her - but since being in the care of the centre, she now weighs just over 8kg and is being stomached every three hours until 11pm. She is fed whisked-up mackerel fat with multi-vitamins, water, and some glucose.
Another seal who is older than the others is Bongo, who was probably born the previous year, and came into the centre on May 17. She remains in the intermediate area.
She suffered a deep wound to his neck caused by a flying disk.
Alice said: “Fly rings are a massive problem for us. We get so many seals and every year it increases with these flying rings or other rubbish that has been dumped in the sea, such as fishing lines or strange gaskets stuck around their neck.”
The wound is being treated with salt, and Bongo is receiving antibiotics and treatment. Her water is changed every day, with lots of salt added to it. Alice said donations of salt are very much appreciated.
However, Bongo is still not very well. She is not eating brilliantly, but she is being monitored closely.
Alice said you can tell she is unwell because she is very quiet and her eyes are a bit more sunken.
Another seal who is currently in the intermediate area after an entanglement is Buffalo.
He had thick rope and mono-filament fishing line deeply embedded around his neck, and when he came into the centre he weighed a healthy 65kg.
However, the rope could not be cut off on the beach as he may have had a build-up of toxins in his head and in his blood from the infection that was caused, which could have led to shock and death, so he had to come into the centre.
Alice said it was lucky the wound was caught early.
Also in the isolation area is Aarduark, who is one of the last pups born from December time.
She is believed to have lungworm, and would have been flat and emaciated on the beach. She has a wet patch around her eyes, which shows she is well hydrated and feeling a little bit better that when she first came into the centre.
She came in with a punctured wound, labored breathing, coughing, and spluttering.
The East Winch centre released six seals last Friday, and puts a hind flipper tag on each one before they go back into the sea so they can be identified if sighted.
Alice said they do get sightings of their seals after they have been released. Some have previously been seen in Germany and the Netherlands.
They also had one spotted last week in France, and a pup who was reared here back at the centre in 2017 was seen with her own pup on a beach in Wales.
“It is the best news, as we know what we are doing here is working, and they are surviving after they have been released,” says Alice.
‘WE ARE RIDICULOUSLY BUSY’
A day in the life of a wildlife assistant is very busy. Staff have to come in first thing and turn all the lights on and check on the animals, making sure there are none which need immediate care.
They then start warming up the feeds and making sure they have got all the prescribed medication, and then start feeding the seals at 8am.
A lot of scrubbing the pens, cleaning and washing up is required.
Alice said: “We are ridiculously busy, and I manage to do around 20,000 steps around the building a day.
DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS ABOUT SEALS?
• Seals' milk is the fattiest milk out of any mammal, so they tend to feed up their pups in about three-four weeks. They usually quadruple in size in that time.
• It is a common misconception that seals live in water – they live both on land and in water. They catch their prey, feed, and spend a lot of their time in water, but they also head to land to sleep, moult, breed, and have their babies. They only really need water to get their food.
GET INVOLVED WITH THE CENTRE
Members of the public are getting the rare chance to see behind the scenes of the centre and will even be able to catch a glance of some of the animals at an open day on Sunday, June 29 from 10am-4pm.
There will be a host of activities to take part in during the day, such as watching the seals be fed, a hedgehog trail, and much more.
A Bishop of Norwich open garden day is being hosted by the centre on Sunday, July 27 from 1pm-4.30pm, with funds going towards the RSPCA.