Vancouver Aquarium saves first two seal pups of 2024

The Vancouver Aquarium announced its first seal pup rescues of the year.

Emily Johnson of the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society (VAMMR) told CityNews her team got a call Monday morning from someone at the end of a pier in White Rock who could hear a small cry and see some ‘tell-tail’ signs of a seal trapped within the breakwater rocks.

“All she could see, when she started to investigate, was two little hind flippers flipping back and forth,” said Johnson. “So we just extracted this little guy. He was stuck — very much wedged down, head first into the rock. He would not have been able to get himself out of that situation.”

The team borrowed a dingy from a local tour company and lifted the pup, unharmed, into a sanitary crate.

The pup, named Nelson, is now recovering after being dehydrated and underweight.

Johnson says VAMMR couldn’t find an adult seal in the area, but Nelson is “stabilizing nicely” at the rescue society.

“That’s what we aim to do is to get them healthy enough to be released back out into their natural habitat,” she said.

Nelson will stay on at the Society for the next six to eight weeks, until he’s “fattened up” to 23 kilograms, when he’ll be released locally into “quiet” open waters.

The pup was admitted at 7.2 kilograms, so Johnson says he can look forward to weeks of high-fat formula until his teeth grow in and he’s ready to learn to hunt fish in enclosed pools.

Since Monday, Nelson has been joined by Gustav, another pup VAMMR says it rescued the next day.

Baby seals are born seasonally, so Johnson said the Society still expects to see more rescues while the pups are young.

Johnson says Nelson got his name from a volunteer who won the chance to name him after their hometown of Nelson, B.C.

If you want the chance to name a future rescue, VAMMR says you can donate to do that directly on its website.