Armed with herding boards to block bites and scratches, Vancouver Aquarium volunteers went to work on Saturday loading more than a dozen rescued and rehabilitated seals into kennels to return them to their natural habitat.
Lindsaye Akhurst, rehabilitation manger for the aquarium's Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, said the more unruly the seals, the better.
"There are by no means trained animals," she told CTV News. "By them not doing what we tell them to, or by not going along with the motions, it means that we've one our job correctly."
Akhurst and the centre's roughly 150 volunteers are banking on the seals' healthy distrust for humans to maximize their chances of survival in the wild.
The centre nurtures more than 100 seals to health each year. Fourteen are being released on Saturday into Porteau Cove, located along Highway 99 between Lions Bay and Furry Creek.
"We've taught them how to fish school, how to swim really well, conditioned them in the pools and now it's just a matter of us releasing them," she said.
Another 50 seals remain in treatment for possible release later this year.
Akhurst said most seals come in as days-old pups, either lost, malnourished or ill, and are released after two to three months of care and training.
Anyone who sees a seal or other marine mammal in apparent distress is urged not to touch it, but to contact the rescue centre at 604-258-SEAL or 604-862-1647 after hours.
More information is available at the Marine Mammal Research Centre website.
