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Harbor seal pup rescued near Egegik in Rehab

Liz Julian/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward began diagnostics and rehabilitation on a malnourished, dehydrated, infected harbor seal pup  this week. The pup was found and reported close to Egegik at Coffee Point.

Early Tuesday, the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward received a call from a wildlife patrol officer near Coffee Point near Egegik about an abandoned, two-week-old harbor seal pup.

She was found alone and in bad condition. The pup was dehydrated and weak with an umbilical cord infection and an injured right shoulder. She was transported to the Alaska Sea life Center, where she remains in the rehabilitative care of Derek Woody.

“This little girl is in pretty grave condition and there’s a lot of issues going on. We’re going to be working with it around the clock for the next several days and see what we can do to be able to diagnose the different issues and be able to treat them as fast as possible," Woody says. 

Sea Life Center staff are rehabilitating and diagnosing the pup in quarantine to prevent the potential spread of disease. If she survives, then she will be released back into the natural environment.

Woody says that in 2016 between 10 and 20 animals were rescued, an increase he credits to public awareness about the Center’s resources, especially the stranding hotline. The Sea Life Center has trained operators ready to walk callers through the next steps if they find a marine mammal in distress.

The hotline number is 1-888-774-SEAL (7325).

For more information, visit http://www.alaskasealife.org/stranding_guidelines.

Contact the author at 907-842-5281.