31-12-2006 Last storm damage in 2006
In the night of Saturday 30th to Sunday 31st of December, the strong wind and the propelling water caused danger to many newly born grey seal pups. Read more
30-12-2006 A good beginning to the end of the year
This week, this year’s last rehabilitated seals have been released into the Wadden Sea. Read more
30-12-2006 Rehabilitation and information centre in Iran becomes a reality
During the last couple of weeks, plans for building the first rehabilitation and information centre on the Caspian Sea coast have become more concrete. Lenie ‘t Hart has held talks in Teheran with university representatives who are interested to be involved in the project. Read more
09-12-2006 Willem I: the first white baby seal from the Wadden Sea
The first white baby seal has been found this year on the island Vlieland. She has been named Willem I, after the seal first-aid worker who found her on the beach. The pup was surrounded by at least twenty seagulls. Read more
06-12-2006 Involuntary amateur radio transmitter
On December 5th SRRC workers received some alarming news. A voluntary seal first-aid worker told us he had seen a weak seal which was in bad condition and had a large transmitter on its back. There was also a cable that ran over the animal’s head towards its mouth. Read more
06-12-2006 Young Monk Seal in Turkey
Tuesday December 5th, a young monk seal washed ashore without its mother at Didem, on the west coast of Turkey. The young animal was hungry. Luckily it was not sick or wounded. Read more
20-11-2006 SRRC Lenie ’t Hart geared to expansion
For a while now, the SRRC has been looking into the possibilities of improving and making the accommodation more efficient. Read more
05-11-2006 Scrapbook-initiative at Kreadoe hobby-fair in Utrecht was a huge success
Throughout the popular hobby fair ‘Kreadoe’ in Utrecht (with 35.000 visitors from Wednesday to Sunday), the scrap-team, lead by Jenny Doornbos-Straatman, has been very busy. Read more
03-11-2006 New study on by-catch porpoises in fishnets
Dead porpoises are increasingly being washed up along the shore of the Dutch coast. The results of a study, undertaken by the SRRC, show that 10 to 20 percent of all dead porpoises drown, because they are being caught in fishnets as by-catch. Read more
26-10-2006 Two Beautiful Days
On Friday 20th and Saturday 21st of October, a total of 6 seals were released back into the Wadden Sea. On Friday, four common seals, which had been brought in to the SRRC in the summer as babies, were released. Read more
25-10-2006 Coalition of animal protectors successful
Minister Veerman has frozen his plans to abolish the Health and Welfare Act for Animals. Read more
25-10-2006 'Washed-Ashore-Day'
On Friday, September 29th, the fourth 'washed-ashore-day' was held at the National Museum of Natural History, Naturalis, in Leiden. Last year, this event was organised by SRRC Lenie 't Hart. Read more
23-10-2006 Lenie visits the St. Jozefschool in Aalten
"Seals are better off than the children of asylum-seekers," one of the teachers at the St. Jozefschool lamented this summer in a newspaper article, after a family with three very young children in Aalten had been turned out onto the street just like that.
Read more
23-10-2006 Theatrical action at primary school OBS Meedhuizen
As part of the children's book week, SRRC-worker Marrije Verspuij visited the primary school in Meedhuizen to read the kids a story about animals. Read more
16-09-2006 New Logo
With the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Zeehondencrèche and the 65th birthday of Lenie 't Hart the board of Zeehondencrechè Pieterburen has decided to change it's name and face the future with a new logo. In recognition of 35 years of dedication to seal rescue and 35 years of adhering to unique principles of seal care as developed by founder and director Lenie 't Hart, the name has now officially been changed to: Zeehondencrèche Lenie 't Hart.
The new logo still has the stylized element of the baby seal in the lifesaver, but the name of the town where the Zeehondencrèche is located (Pieterburen) has been removed and the name of Lenie 't Hart is now part of the logo. We hope you like the new look!
30-08-2006 Escaped from the seal hunters
A young, female Harp Seal was found along the Frisian Coast between Zürich and Harlingen this weekend. Harp Seals do not inhabit our waters and they are a rare appearance in the Netherlands. Read more
27-08-2006 Government queries minister Veerman about fishnet victims
Minister Veerman of Agriculture must take measures against the rising numbers of severely wounded and dead seals that are being brought in to the SRRC in Pieterburen. Read more
21-08-2006 A gruesome game
A young, playful seal is swimming in the Wadden Sea. He finds something interesting floating in the water. He nudges it with his nose and begins to play with it. The thing bobs up and down on the water, jumping away and coming back again. Read more
30-07-2006 Annual count of the seal population
On July 8th, the Seal Research and Rescue Center carried out a seal-observation flight over the Wadden Sea. From the plane, every sandbank in the Wadden Sea was checked for seals. Read more
09-07-2006 Little seals travel by bus to Pieterburen
On Saturday the 8th of July, a couple of little 'seals' joined Lenie ‘t Hart on a festive first bus ride from Baflo’s train station to Pieterburen’s Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre. A new bus service from Baflo, connecting the train from Groningen to Pieterburen, will be running throughout the summer until the 3rd of September, thanks to an initiative by the public transport bureau Groningen-Drenthe. You can view the timetable here. We hope that many travelers will make use of this service. The little 'seals' who accompanied Lenie on the bus ride, happily traveled back home again on the bus with their mummy and daddy. Click here for photos
09-07-2006 Tears of joy over seal Bianca
Though ten-year-old Moigimi Ajeki from Deventer had been looking forward to it greatly, she could never have imagined the experience to be so special: Last week she was allowed to release the seal Bianca into the Waddensea. Moigimi had won first prize by entering a competition for Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre supporters.
Read more
18-06-2006 Budding happiness, but also distress in the Wadden Sea
A splendid sight: mother seals lying on a sandbank with their young. Lenie 't Hart took these pictures yesterday. Though slightly later than last year, the season in which the baby seals are born has started again. Mother seals are very watchful of their young and always stay near. They nurse their pups for four weeks, and in that period the young is completely reliant on its mother.
Still, it happens regularly that mother and young get separated. This can be due to disturbance, but also through bad weather or strong currents in the sea. The baby seal will swim around crying and try to suckle with other mothers. Unfortunately, a mother seal is only able to nurse one pup at a time.
The bottom picture seems nice. However, this is a situation waiting to go wrong: Two orphaned pups try to join a mother (second left) and her young. For two of these animals it will not end well. Unfortunately, we are unable to intervene, as it could cause this mother to abandon her pup as well. We can only hope that these two baby seals will soon be found along the side. Will you help us by watching out for them?
18-06-2006 Black Lola, back in the picture
Terschelling's S.F.A (seal-first-aider) Hessel Wiegman and the crew of the Typhoon, a ship belonging to the towing and salvaging company Rederij Noordgat, sighted our Black Lola on the edge of the Engelse Hoek (translated: English Corner), when on his way to rescue a seal which had become tied up in a net. Black Lola was looking very relaxed and well, a whole lot better than the victim in the net. However, thanks to the men of Terschelling's Rederij Noordgat, who can always be relied on to help, this seal will now also be able to recover from its wounds safely in Pieterburen.
31-03-2006 Let's buy them out!
Anger, helplessness and sadness. These are the strong emotions I feel when I think about what is currently happening to young, defenseless seals on the Canadian ice floes. One wonders how on earth this is possible in our modern world. But what is even worse is that some large conservation organizations are suggesting - even to children - that this is normal practice. Read more
Newsarchive 2006
