Six seal pups return to the sea

The Cornish Seal Sanctuary has released six pups into the wild in a major operation. The Greyseal pups had no doubt got used to being looked after at the centre but today was the day they were big enough and strong enough to fend for themselves in the real world.

They were transported to Gwithian beach early this morning and herded into St Ives Bay to begin a new life.

When a pup reaches 40kg and has received a clean bill of health they are usually released back into the wild. All this group had made that target but, due to the bad weather, the animal care team delayed releasing any pups until the conditions were right.

The six youngsters are all named after superheroes and Bruce Wayne is a particular favourite as he was found at Cot Valley last October with a broken jaw. He was operated on and had to have wires in his jaw for eight weeks while it healed.

This is the Sanctuary's first seal release of the season. It plans to continue returning the rest of the pups it has been looking after over the next few weeks.

Our reporter Kathy Wardle was there the moment the pups were released back into the wild. You can watch her report below.