The Vancouver Aquarium and the public will be able to track five seal pups recently released into the wild through a new pilot project announced Tuesday.
The Marine Mammal Rescue Centre said they have tagged the rescued and rehabilitated seals with satellite-linked transmitters as they swim free on the Sunshine Coast.
The trackers will provide information on where the seals go, as well as foraging behaviours and habitat use. The aquarium is also launching a website where the public can track the seals.
The tags, attached to the tops of the seals' heads, will stay for up to nine months until the seals moult.
“We know very little about their movements after they’re released. This gives us an amazing opportunity to monitor their whereabouts and activities post-release,” said Lindsaye Akhurst, manager of the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.
Akhurst said the centre rehabilitates around 150 marine mammals a year and 70 to 90 per cent of the animals are successfully released back into the wild.
She said the rescued seals spend around two to three months in rehabilitation before release.
“All of our seals that come through our program are examined prior to release and seals that we release have had minimal contact with humans in their last few weeks, they’re eating fish really well, and have a good weight on them,” she said.
While most of the baby seals brought to the centre are successfully released, sometimes the effects of being separated from their mothers results in tragic cases.
In August, CTV News reported a five-day-old seal was rescued on Savary Island in August. A group of B.C. boaters found the pup and took it by boat to Powell River where it was flown to the rescue centre in Vancouver.
Akhurst said the pup was very malnourished and hadn’t developed a strong enough immune system to survive after being separated from its mother.
“As much as we tried with intensive medical care we were unable to bring him back,” Akhurst said, adding that the pup developed several infections and had to be put down two weeks after being rescued.
Akhurst said by tracking the released seals the centre will be able to learn more about how effective their rehabilitation programs are and make any necessary changes.
