Number of sick seal pups helped by Cornish Seal Sanctuary rises by more than a quarter

The number of sick and injured seal pups needing help and treatment at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary has risen by more than a quarter on last year.

Over the pup season, which generally runs from September to March, the sanctuary helped a total of 63 pups, a 26% rise on the previous year.

The youngest was just a day old and so far 55 of the pups have been released back into the wild.

The sanctuary at Gweek, near Helston, said that as part of its effort to reduce its carbon footprint and support the local economy the majority of fish to feed the pups has come from local suppliers. The cost of that has been just over £21,500.

This pup season has been much longer than usual and saw the teams looking after pups with multiple issues, from malnourishment and respiratory disease to worms and entanglement.

Curator Tamara Cooper said: "It’s been an extremely busy pup season for the team here in Gweek and I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to achieve.

"The rising cost of fish and the current economic climate have certainly made our work challenging this year.

"We’ve also seen a big rise in the number of poorly pups admitted to our seal hospital, which has stretched us to our limits.

"With lots of other activity on site during the pup season; including the arrival of ten rescue puffins from our Sister Beluga Whale Sanctuary in Iceland, and sadly losing one of our lovely residents Ray, the Animal Care team here have been rushed off their feet!”

Seal pup season usually runs from September to March, however this year the Sanctuary saw the first pup arriving on site on 18 August and the last will hopefully be released in the next couple of weeks.