Sealcentre Pieterburen has taken in the first common seal pup of this summer. The animal had been found by bystanders. They saw no mother around and thought it needed help. The Sealcentre would like to remind everyone that it is forbidden to touch seals except for trained seal guards. This is the only way operational seal centres can pursue the policy according to the Seal Agreement.

On Friday afternoon 19 May, bystanders came across a common seal pup near Sint Jacobiparochie. This one was lying alone in the mud with no mother around. As it was a young animal, the bystanders assumed it could not take care of itself. Therefore, they decided to take the pup with them. They then called Sealcentre Pieterburen to seek professional help.

While the Sealcentre understands the good intentions, this is not the desired course of action. Picking up and helping seals yourself is contrary to the policy set out in the 2020 Seal Agreement . This agreement puts the focus on observing wild seals before deciding whether rehabilitation is needed. Therefore, there are trained seal guards who monitor reported animals and relay all necessary information to the seal centre for which they operate. The centre then decides whether to take a seal to the centre. This way gives the most certainty that rehabilitation was the right choice. If the public decides to intervene themselves, it becomes impossible for seal centres to pursue this policy.

A seal mother can leave her pup alone for up to eight hours, without anything needing to be wrong. Unfortunately, the pup was too severely disturbed to be returned to the area she came from. It was therefore decided to take the animal in. Once in Pieterburen, she was given the name Crista. This name is derived from the scientific name for the hooded seal, Cystophora cristata. A species of seal not normally found in the Netherlands, but which gave birth to a young on Vlieland in March this year. A unique event and therefore the inspiration for the name of the first pup this summer. She was probably at most six days old and born prematurely. This makes her still very weak and she is therefore closely monitored by the vets and intensively cared for. The pup can currently be admired from a safe distance at the Seal Centre.

The first pup marks the start of the common seal's birthing season. Many pups will be born in the coming period and receive milk from their mothers for about three to four weeks. All seal centres and seal guards therefore continue to appeal to keep as much distance as possible from seals at this time in particular, so that mother and pup can pass this suckling period undisturbed. If people still have doubts about the health of an animal, they should report it via 144 (available 24 hours a day). After being reported, seals are observed for at least 24 hours, as research shows that many seals can handle themselves well - provided they get enough rest during those 24 hours. Seal guards can ensure this by cordoning off areas and informing the public, while staying in touch with seal centres about the animal's condition.

Last Sunday, Cornelia was released! This adult grey seal came to us weakened on 21 February. And now she is strong enough again to return to the Wadden Sea. Together with other grey seals, she was released. It was a beautiful release at sunset.

Het gebeurt niet vaak dat we een volwassen grijze zeehond in de opvang hebben. Vrijwilliger Martina Zilian heeft mooie foto’s van haar gemaakt. 

De geboorte van een klapmuts op Vlieland was bijzonder nieuws. Onze collega Sander van Dijk was uitgenodigd bij het tv programma Tijd voor Max om meer te vertellen over de deze zeehondensoort. Hij had onder andere een schedel van klapmuts meegenomen om te laten zien aan de kijkers. Ook was Gerard Koster Joenje van vlielandplaatjes.nl erbij om wat mooie beelden te laten zien. De onderstaande afbeeldingen zijn ook van Gerard. 

Bekijk here het fragment.

On the morning of Monday 27 March, a hooded seal gave birth to a pup on the beach of Vlieland. The hooded seal is a seal species that occurs naturally around the polar region, so that makes this very exceptional and special. After consultation with Sealcentre Pieterburen and the local seal guard, police and army have closed the area to the public for the time being. However, this is of limited duration and the centre is concerned about long-term conditions for the pup. Therefore, the centre calls for the animals to rest.

On Monday 27 March, seal guard Willem made a very special discovery on the beach of Vlieland: a hooded seal that had recently given birth to a pup on the beach of Vlieland. Never before had this occurred. Hooded seals are native to the polar region and have one of the shortest nursing periods of all seal species: only four days on average. Therefore, the we are so gratefull that the local police and the army closed off the area around the mother and pup for the time being. Hopefully, the two will be able to get through the suckling period undisturbed.

The short suckling period will be followed by a period of fasting for the young animal, during which it will occasionally ingest some fluids through the ice it normally lies on. Then the animal goes hunting in the open waters of the polar region. These conditions are obviously lacking here. The centre is therefore concerned about how the pup will fare afterwards. Either way, it will be important to give the animals rest, and the centre makes the appeal to do so. Moreover, it is working with police and army to find a solution to keep the area closed for longer.

The hooded seal is a seal species listed as "vulnerable" on the IUCN red list. They live mainly around Greenland. Every now and then, young animals sometimes end up elsewhere. Several hooded seals have also been taken in the Netherlands, but 3 times in the past 10 years. In 2013, a young hooded seal came into Sealcentre Pieterburen and in 2014 and 2018 at A Seal in Stellendam.

Photo credit: Gerard Koster Joenje, vlielandplaatjes.nl

Ana, onze Hoofd Dierengeneeskunde, Zorg & Wetenschap en Sara, Stagiare Dierenarts woonden deze week de conferentie van de European Association of Aquatic Mammals (EAAM) bij. Beiden gaven een presentatie over hun onderzoek, gebruikte methoden en eerste bevindingen. Dat Ana en Sara het Zeehondencentrum vertegenwoordigen op de conferentie voor het welzijn en behoud van zeezoogdieren door middel van onderzoek, medische zorg, opleiding, onderwijs, behoud, beheer en activiteiten – dáár zijn we erg trots op!

Congenital disorders in harbour (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) admitted into rehabilitation from the Dutch Wadden sea 

Congenital disorders are functional or structural defects that are present at birth. Monitoring of birth defects in wildlife can provide conservationists with information about the status of that population and can help with the detection of emerging teratogens. In marine mammals, there are few reports on congenital abnormalities, which are mostly found during postmortem examinations. 

Harbour (Phoca vitulina) and grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) populations of the Dutch Wadden sea are stable and considered healthy. The current study summarizes information on sporadically appearing congenital or potentially congenital abnormalities in harbour and grey seals between 2014 and 2022. All animals were admitted into rehabilitation at Sealcentre, Pieterburen, in The Netherlands. We focused on the diagnostic methods and outcomes of each individual. The diagnoses were based on physical examination, clinical symptoms, and diagnostic imaging. These cases included melanism, albinism, microphthalmia, esophageal stenosis, impaired swallowing reflex, vestibular disease, dwarfism, hiatal hernia, cleft lip, arthrogryposis, and megaesophagus. During the study period, a total of 2739 seals were admitted into rehabilitation. The prevalence of congenital disease in our study was 0.62%. 

Gut microbiome of stranded harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) admitted for rehabilitation. 

In the Netherlands, the Sealcentre Pieterburen rehabilitates an average of 250 grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) per year. Being held in temporal captivity for rehabilitation might have an effect on the seals microbiome, and our study aimed to understand this effect in the gut microbiome of stranded harbour seals and the main factors contributing to it. We investigated the distal gut microbiome of two large cohorts (pups and weaners) of stranded harbour seals that were admitted for rehabilitation at the Sealcentre. The gut microbiome of young harbour seals stranded in the Netherlands is composed of Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, Fusobacteriota, Campylobacterota, and Actinobacteriota, and corresponds with the main core phyla described for this species in other parts of the world. The alpha diversity (richness and Shannon diversity) of the pup’s microbiome increased significantly during rehabilitation, while there were no significant changes in the weaners. Beta diversity of both pups’ and weaners’ gut microbiome was different before and after rehabilitation, with age and sex as main factors. We conclude that there was an important change in the microbiome of stranded harbour seals that were admitted to the Sealcentre.

Ana Rubio-Garcia1*, Aldert L. Zomer2 , Ruoshui Guo2, John W.A. Rossen3,4,5, Jan H. van Zeijl6, Jaap A. Wagenaar 2,7 , and Roosmarijn E.C. Luiken 2 

1. Veterinary and Research Department, Sealcentre Pieterburen, Pieterburen, The Netherlands 

2. Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht, The Netherlands 

3. Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 

4. Department of Pathology, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. 

5. Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease, Isala hospital, Zwolle, The Netherlands. 

6. Department of Medical Microbiology Friesland and Noordoostpolder, Certe, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands 

7. Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Lelystad, The Netherlands 

Wat is ie leuk geworden: de zeehondenprint die Studio Ditte speciaal voor ons heeft ontwikkeld. En nog leuker, het kan bij jou thuis aan de muur hangen! Studio Ditte is een bewust merk dat onder andere behang ontwikkelt. Speciaal voor ons hebben ze dit zeehondenbehang ontworpen. En per rol gaat er €5,- naar ons centrum. Daar zijn we natuurlijk erg blij mee, ontzettend bedankt! Het zeehondenbehang is vanaf nu te koop via de webshop van Studio Ditte en via verschillende winkels.

Lees meer over onze samenwerking op het blog van Studio Ditte here. 

Zeehondencentrum Pieterburen heeft de eerste grijze zeehondenpup van dit winterseizoen opgevangen. Het dier kroop gisteravond laat over een weg in Den Helder. Ze is “Hali” genoemd naar de wetenschappelijke naam van haar soort, de grijze zeehond: Halichoerus grypus. De pup bleek de dagen daarvoor al op Texel in observatie te zijn geweest door de zeehondenwachters van Ecomare. De centra roepen – nogmaals – op om de komende weken rust en ruimte te geven aan zeehondenmoeders en hun pups.

Gisteravond rond 19:00 uur kwam er een melding binnen van een zeehondenpup bij het Zeehondencentrum in Pieterburen. De pup was over de dijk gekropen en op de rijweg terecht gekomen. Eenmaal ter plaatse bleek dat het ging om een al gemarkeerde zeehondenpup. De zeehondenwachters van Ecomare hadden de pup al een aantal dagen geobserveerd op Texel. Na navraag bleek de pup inmiddels gewicht te hebben verloren en dat, in combinatie met de locatie, maakte dat de pup werd opgevangen.

De pup is een vrouwtje van minstens 10 dagen oud en weegt nog maar net 15 kilo. Dit is een paar kilo lichter dan wat een pup van haar leeftijd had moeten zijn. Ze is “Hali” genoemd naar de wetenschappelijke naam van haar soort, de grijze zeehond: Halichoerus grypus.

Kortgeleden deed het Zeehondencentrum al de oproep extra alert te zijn rondom zeehonden in deze periode van het jaar. Grijze zeehonden krijgen nu hun pups en moeders hebben maar 2,5 week tijd hun pups te voeden. In die korte periode groeien de pups enorm snel, van 10 kilo bij geboorte naar soms wel 50 kilo als de moeder ze verlaat. Daarom is het essentieel dat zeehondenmoeders en -pups de rust en ruimte krijgen die ze dit jaar nodig hebben.

Pup season in full swing

Is er wel twijfel over de toestand van een zeehond, dan kan er altijd gebeld worden met 144. Zij zullen dan doorverbinden met het centrum dat in dat gebied actief is. De centra sturen dan zeehondenwachters op de melding af om te beoordelen wat er aan de hand is en rust te creëren om de zeehonden heen. Zeehondenwachters zijn actief sinds het in 2020 getekende Seal Agreement. De bedoeling van het akkoord is om zo veel mogelijk problemen voor zeehonden te voorkomen en daarmee het aantal dat in de opvang terecht komt te verlagen.

We hebben feestelijk nieuws! In 2023 start de bouw van Werelderfgoedcentrum Waddenzee. In 2025 verhuizen we naar Lauwersoog om te werken aan een bredere missie.

In 2023 begint de bouw van het nieuwe Werelderfgoedcentrum Waddenzee in Lauwersoog, dat we in 2025 feestelijk zullen openen. Een spiksplinternieuw gebouw, waar wij niet alleen ons werk mogen voortzetten, maar ook mogen uitbreiden. In 50 jaar hebben we veel bereikt voor de zeehond. Maar we weten ook zoveel meer over haar leefomgeving, het UNESCO Werelderfgoed de Waddenzee. De Waddenzee zien we als graadmeter voor het totale ecosysteem, waar ook wij als mens deel van uit maken. 

The Wadden Sea World Heritage Site is the largest continuous tidal area in the world. A unique area that is the only one of our country to have UNESCO Natural World Heritage status. In the Wadden area, you can experience at first hand how valuable, complex and challenging man's relationship with nature is. We will take our unique working method, knowledge and 50 years of experience in seal care and rehabilitation to Lauwersoog. In doing so, we will build a new and better awareness of the relationship between man and nature. And we invite you to work on this relationship with us. Curious? On the World Heritage Centre Wadden Sea project website you can learn more about the new centre and get a taste of the atmosphere.