30th May 2009 - Two local residents rung the hospital to say "yellow tag" had re-appeared at the back of the Ship Hotel in Bacton.
9th June 2009 - The "yellow tag" was seen again by coastguards on the beach between Walcott and Ostend, seal rescue volunteers hurried down there but the seal evaded rescue. It was still in the same area on the 11th June 2009.
17th June 2009 - An emergency call was received by the hospital from a lifeguard in Cromer reporting a baby seal in the shallows in distress. Seal rescue volunteers went to Cromer but despite much help from the lifeguards there were unable to rescue the exhausted looking seal with the yellow tag. A large crowd of locals and holidaymakers watched on as the rescuers and lifeguards tried in vain to rescue the seal and take it back to the hospital for a proper checkup.
19th June 2009 - The "yellow tag" was spotted again at Waxham but was attacked by a dog and chased back into the sea, but not before some children had drawn portraits of the seal in the sand.
22nd June 2009 - Coastguards reported a yellow tagged seal at Winterton beach, seal rescue volunteers went to pick it up while the coastguard kept guard. Unfortunately, the seal was again chased back into the sea by a dog.
30th June 2009 - Lifeguards in Lowestoft reported a seal with a yellow tag that had been seen on the beach, they tried to keep a crowd of youngsters from touching it as it is a wild animal (who doesn't seem to dislike human contact!)
2nd July 2009 - The seal hospital received an early morning call from a Scratby resident called Peter reporting a seal on the beach, he was asked if he could stay near the seal to stop dogs from frightening it back into the sea. A seal rescue volunteer rushed to Scratby and with the help of a few other locals managed to rescue approximately 90lbs of harbour seal with a yellow tag on its back flipper, we believe it is approximately 3 - 5 years old. "Wanda" (as we have temporarily named her) was taken back to the Winterton Seal Hospital for a check up. She was checked over for injuries and given a big breakfast of herring and promptly fell asleep. We are currently trying to trace the origins of "Wanda" and hope to find out her real name soon.
We would like to thank everyone who helped us keep track and try to rescue Wanda as we received over 40 calls from different lifeguards, coastguards and members of the public.
We would also like to appeal to all dog walkers that spot a seal to keep their dogs away as an attack from a dog on a baby seal often results in the death of the seal. Also to anyone that finds a baby seal on the beach to ring the Seal Hospital number so that we can rescue it, PLEASE DO NOT PUSH IT BACK INTO THE SEA.
Winterton Seal Hospital urgently require more volunteers to help rescue and nurse baby seals, training can be given on site. Anyone interested in helping to rescue and rehabiliate seals on our coast, please contact the Seal Hospital on 01493 393947 for more details. Harbour seals may be pupping over the next few months and we anticipate a busy summer.
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