Two harbour seal pups have been successfully released into the North Sea at Northumberland after spending months in rehabilitation. Sprite and Xana were both found to be underweight when they were rescued over the summer from across the North East.
The pups spent over a month receiving care and treatment at Tynemouth Seal Hospital, which is on site within the aquarium, as well as an additional month with the intensive care team in a North East Seal Triage (NEST) Unit.
Re-wilding process before release
In recent weeks, Xana was moved into a back pen at the hospital to help with the re-wilding process, which aims to break the association between food and the volunteer team. This process is designed to ensure the pups can stay safe upon their return to the wild.
On Saturday, before Storm Boelo hit the North East, the two pups were taken by a team of volunteers from the Seal Hospital to the release site at Collywell Bay in Seaton Sluice.
Pups return to the sea
Xana and Sprite left their cages quickly, flopping along on their bellies over the sand before making their way to the shore. The pups gave a final farewell to volunteers before swimming off into the North Sea.
Ashleigh Bell, Display Supervisor at Tynemouth Aquarium and Seal Hospital, said the seals have gained much-needed weight during their time in care and have also been getting lots of swimming in to help their muscles. Bell said: "Xana, one of the pups we have released today, she put on 19 kilos in her time with us. The other one Sprite, he put on a little bit less, about 15 kilos. So they've got much fatter from where they were, they're nice and fit and healthy and then they've just been released back into the North Sea."
