Tanja, seal from Katwijk, moved to Terschelling
For a couple of weeks, she had been lying –first with another seal – on the beach near the Katwijk’ drainage canal. The seal was the centre of attention there. Every day, hundreds of people came to look at the seal. Some people would come as close as a metre distance. From the many pictures the SRRC received, which clearly showed a tag on its back flipper, we found out that the seal came from a fellow rehabilitation centre in Germany. Unfortunately, all the attention was not good for the seal, and the risk of a biting incident grew.
Our Seal First-Aid volunteer, Leen van Duijn from Katwijk is very clear about these things: “When a seal feels threatened, it can bite in self-defence. This can have serious consequences.” During Easter, Leen placed a notice warning people to keep a wide distance from the seal. Unfortunately, not many people took any notice. After discussing it with Lenie ‘t Hart from the SRRC in Pieterburen, it was decided to catch the seal.
A possibility for this arose early in the morning of April 7th. Armed with a special net, Leen stalked over the beach, while photographer Arie van Dijk distracted the seal from the other side. Van Duijn was able to catch the animal in the first attempt and secured it in a special wicker travel basket.
Meanwhile, Lenie ‘t Hart had organised transport for the journey from Harlingen to Terschelling. Seal First-Aider Hessel Wiegman from Terschelling sailed with shipping company Rederij Noordgat’s speedboat ‘Tempest’ to Harlingen.
Around 11 ‘o clock, the basket with the seal had arrived on the Tempest, and the crossing to Terschelling started. There, transport was continued with Hessels 4WD. The seal’s long journey ended on the Noordvaarder, the place where seals are always released on Terschelling. When the basket was opened, the animal briefly looked around, but soon she realised where she should be heading.
She crept out of the basket and quickly waddled towards the Wadden Sea, where a couple of other seals seemed to be waiting for her. She took a brief glance back at her rescuers and disappeared from sight along with six other seals.
04-07-2010 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
