The need to create such a center arose due to the fact that in recent years, winters in the Baltic Sea have become increasingly warm, and the ice cover is destroyed before the grey seal pups, which breed on the ice of the Northern Baltic, have time to grow up and become strong enough to live independently. Every year in March-April, dozens of weakened, exhausted seal pups are registered on the coast of the Kaliningrad Region, washed ashore by currents and waves and having no chance of survival. Therefore, specialists from VNIRO and the Moskvarium Oceanography and Marine Biology Center came up with the idea of creating a center where such seal pups would be nursed, treated if necessary, fed, and returned to their natural habitat strong and healthy.
The operator of the Rehabilitation Center was the autonomous non-profit organization Heart of the Seas, created on the initiative of Moskvarium.
“The gray Baltic seal is listed in the IUCN Red Book, the Red Book of Russia, and the Red Book of the Kaliningrad Region. Therefore, we were happy to support the initiative to create a rehabilitation center based on the site of the NEB of the Atlantic branch of VNIRO, located on the Curonian Spit. VNIRO and Moskvarium have many years of experience in cooperation in preserving marine mammals in the Far East and Caspian basins, and now we have launched a joint project in the Baltic. By joint efforts, we expect to develop an effective method of seal rehabilitation, eliminating their domestication, and return to normal life as many animals as possible," said Vyacheslav Bizikov, Deputy Director of VNIRO for Research.
During the first season of the rehabilitation center, three emaciated gray seal pups were found and rescued.
Specialists and researchers from ANO "Heart of the Seas" and VNIRO provided the animals with qualified veterinary care and carried out all the necessary rehabilitation measures.
"The pups arrived at the center in serious condition, their weight was only 15 kg, which is 60% less than the norm. Now all the seals weigh about 40 kg. Thanks to the short rehabilitation period and prompt weight gain, they quickly adapt to their natural habitat," said Irina Meinzer, curator of ANO "Heart of the Seas". At the first stage, two grey seal pups were released on the territory of the Curonian Spit National Park, having fully recovered and gained the necessary weight. The third seal pup is successfully recovering and gaining the necessary weight under the supervision of specialists.
The activities of the rehabilitation center on the Curonian Spit will make an important contribution to the preservation and replenishment of the Baltic Sea grey seal population and will lead to an increase in its numbers in the waters of the Kaliningrad Region.
Press service of VNIRO
