Last Sunday, a heavily wounded seal was seen on the Engelse Hoek (a sandbank between Vlieland and Terschelling) by Jan Koning from Vlieland. He called the voluntary Seal First-Aiders in Terschelling to the rescue. The seal appeared to be a grey seal of about two years old. The poor animal had a piece of gill net around its neck , which had made deep cuts when the animal had tried to wrestle itself free.
The seal had become so weak that the men were able to rescue him and transport him to Pieterburen. There it became clear just how deep the thin nylon wire had cut into his skin: The neck wound went right down to the bone. He must have been swimming around like this for months.
The net has been completely removed from the wound and the seal will now be able to regain his strengths. We hope to be able to release him among his own sort soon, even though his head will still look a bit funny.
It is clear that our net collecting is still necessary!
10-14-2008 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
