On Tuesday November 13th, Bruna the seal was found on Terschelling. It was brought to the SRRC with lungworm problems. With Bruna, the SRRC has reached a milestone: never before in the history of seal rescue have 300 seals been rehabilitated in one single year. The fact that it is only mid November makes it likely that this year will end with an even more extreme record, as the onset of winter with the birth of the grey seal still lie ahead…
Bruna is a common seal male. At arrival he weighed 17,4 kilo’s; he is approximately 5 months old and is suffering from a severe case of lungworm. Thanks to the intervention of recruitment agency NetWerkt, Bruna was adopted by the Bruna bookstore.
The heavy winter storms in January are mainly responsible for the extremely high number of rehabilitated seals this year. The storms caused many problems for the grey seal young. They are born during the winter period and have to stay on permanently dry sandbanks for the first weeks of their life to be nursed. Due to the extremely high water levels, the young seals were all washed off the sandbanks. Most surviving animals ended up on Vlieland and Terschelling. Almost 100 animals were brought to the SRRC in one week.
Also during the summer – the period in which common seal pups are born – there were severe storms. This meant that during the birth season this year, the sandbanks did not even rise above water at low tide. This caused the young seals to be unable to feed and to lose their mother through exhaustion. The common seal can swim immediately after birth at high tide but has to be fed at low tide. It can not afford to miss a meal.
It appears that climate change is mostly to blame for the unexpected rise in patients. The increase in seals found in trouble bears no relation to this year’s growth in population.
11-14-2007 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
