What to do if you find a seal pup washed up around Liverpool and Wirral

Everyone loves spotting the seals off the coast in Wirral but now is the peak time for baby seal pups to get washed up on beaches and docks around our coast.

Hundreds of pregnant seals who spend spring and summer on West Hoyle Bank off Hilbre Island have moved to sheltered beaches in North Wales to give birth.

If they’re disturbed before the pups are able to fend for themselves, or they get tossed into the sea in a storm, they can end up abandoned and alone.

That’s when members of the public often become their biggest risk.

So, what should you do if you find a seal pup washed up around Liverpool or Wirral, on the beach or at the docks?

Julie Forshaw at British Divers Marine Life Rescue says the number one way people can protect the seals is by keeping their distance.

“When people see a seal pup on the beach they look so cute they want to have a selfie with it, let their dogs sniff it, they want to touch it or stroke it, and we sometimes even get kids throwing stones at them,” she says.

Seal - beach. Credit: Shutterstock — Seal – beach. Credit: Shutterstock

“This time of year, right through to about March, we get regular call-outs to pups, usually in West Kirby, Leasowe, Meols, New Brighton, up the Sefton coast and the Liverpool docks. Our most important job is to keep the public away.

“Sometimes, if the seal pups are on the beach and they don’t look ill, we’ll just literally draw a circle in the sand to isolate the area and try and keep everyone from getting too close because that only causes them more distress.

“We’ll watch them and generally wait for them to go back in the water on their own.

“Immature pups that look ill or too weak to look after themselves end up having to be rescued and taken to the RSPCA rehab centre in Nantwich which covers the whole of the North West and North Wales.”

Julie says well-meaning members of the public can sometimes cause more harm by trying to help.

“People can think that they’ve got to get a pup back in the water, so they might try to drag it, but seals are mammals and they spend the majority of their time out of the water so they’re fine on the beach.

“If they do try and touch the seal there’s a chance it will bite, and bite their dog too. If that happens the person would need to go to hospital and be given a special mix of antibiotics because otherwise infection can set in and they could lose their finger.

“The best thing everyone can do if they see a pup washed up is stay away, keep everyone else away, including dogs, and ring us at the BDMLR.”