An infant harbour seal is convalescing at the Vancouver Aquarium's Marine Mammal Rescue Centre, after being found abandoned by its mother in North Vancouver's Mosquito Creek Marina.
Global News reporter and area resident Linda Aylesworth found the pup, with her umbilical cord still attached, alone on Tuesday morning after hearing it crying throughout the night, according to Linsdaye Akhurst, manager of the rescue centre.
"She was quite lethargic and quite thin so at that point we made a decision to rescue the animal and bring it to the centre," Akhurst said.
The seal, only a few days old and now named Oxygen, has been showing progress quite quickly, Akhurst said "She's only been with us close to 48 hours. She's been settling in well in that time span but still is on a day-to-day basis," she said. "Staff say she is pretty feisty to deal with."
As the person who reported her, Aylesworth had the honour of naming Oxygen, in keeping with the centre's 2014 theme of naming animals after the periodic table of elements.
For now, Oxygen is getting tube-fed a high-fat, high-protein formula five times a day. In time, she'll graduate to being handfed whole fish until she's finally put into a tank with other recuperating pups with almost no human interaction where she'll be socialized and learn to compete for fish.
"At that point, they become almost independent teenagers. They get to this phase where they want less and less to do with us and become quite independent, eating on their own," Akhurst said.
Though harbour seals have a healthy local population, the aquarium seeks to mitigate damage done by interaction with humans. The centre takes in roughly 100 pups and other sea critters per year and nurses them back to health, all of it paid for by donations and revenues generated at the Vancouver Aquarium.
The average stay is two months.
Anyone can report a sea mammal in distress to the centre by calling 604-258-SEAL (7325).
"If you do come across a seal that you feel is in need of rescuing, the best thing to do is stay back. The mom may still come back at that point. We try to keep people and specifically pets away - not only because they can become harmful to the seals but also to the dogs as well," she said.
Putting the two species together brings a risk of transmitting viruses or bacteria that neither are accustomed to.
