On Wednesday morning I received a call from my friend Andrew Smith, asking if I was down the harbour and if I was, could I give him a hand for 15 minutes.

No problem at all I said, so off I went to meet him.

He was beside the gun powder hut which is just the south side of the harbour and he was with a young grey seal pup.

The wind was blowing a gale and he could not rescue the seal as his bag kept on blowing away. He showed me what to do and then he put his gloves on and picked up a towel ready to grab the seal and then we could get it into the bag.

The young seal was not going to get into the bag in a hurry but Andrew did a cracking job and I quickly had the bag ready and we got the seal in.

Andrew quickly weighted the seal as he did not want to stress the seal anymore than he had too, and off we went back along the rocks to his car, where he would take it home and put it into a cage for its own safety.

A little while later a medic from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, who is also a vet from St Clair’s in Blyth arrived. Andrew was keen to learn a bit more, so the vet showed him how to drip feed the seal and take its temperature.

The young seal was feed some fluids, its temperature was ok, but they waited until the tide was high and went to Monks House with a local Cubs Group, Jane Lancaster (who also is a medic) and released the young seal back into the wild.

Later I was told they called it “Rocky”

I would like to thank Andrew for letting me help him and to all of the rest of the guys who saved this young seals life. I will let the pictures do the rest…

Andrew battling the wind and ready to rescue the young seal.

You have to be very careful and very quick and this stage of the game so don’t even try to do it yourself, just give the BDMLR a ring and they will do all the work.

 
As you can see the seal has its eyes covered up and it’s mouth closed just in case it bites. Not the best picture. Sorry Andrew.

 
Bud was wondering what the hell was going on, but he still had to have a quick sniff at the bag.

Weighing the seal. 

 
At Andrew’s garden with the vet inserting the tube to feed the seal.

 
Success and the seal was drip feed some fluids.
 
 
Temperature was taken
 
 
Andrew, Jane and two young helpers from the Cubs taking the seal down the beach to be released.
 
 
Go on Rocky son, you can do it.
 
 
 Success as Rocky heads out to sea and back to the Farne Islands.

Top job guys.
 
  You can find Andrew Smith on www.facebook.com or if you see a seal and you think its needs help contact BDMLR but please don’t waste their time as its all voluntary work they do.  
 
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