On Friday, November 28th, a dead grey seal, with a dead pup partially born, was found on the beach of Terschelling. The mother seal weighed 160 kilos and the pup over 10 kilos.
SRRC’s research shows that the unborn pup had died in the uterus. This caused the womb to rupture and the mother seal to die too. The large head injury happened afterwards, possibly through a ship’s propeller.
Grey seals give birth to their young in the winter on the permanently dry sandbanks. During the first three weeks, the babies are unable to swim well due to their thick baby fur. If they wash off the sandbanks during storms and high tides, most of them come into trouble. The first grey seals have already been born on the sandbanks around Vlieland and Terschelling.
There are no young white seal pups at the SRRC as yet. Luckily, they are all still lying on the sandbanks with their mothers. We do have two young grey seals that washed ashore, which were born in England. The birthing season starts earlier there.
We hope for all white baby seals that there won’t be any storms in the coming weeks.
11-28-2008 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
