NEWSLETTER & PUPDATES

SRI attended the Wexford Business Awards Gala on Friday 27th of May, hosted by the Wexford Chamber of Commerce, and were blown away when we won not one but TWO categories! Green Award for Environmental Best Practice as well as Social Enterprise Outstanding Achievement.

National Biodiversity Week is coming up from 15-22nd May! #NoMowMay is a movement that aims to create a healthy and sustainable ecosystem in all back gardens. Leave your lawnmower in the shed this May and let the flowers grow! You’ll be surprised at how quickly ‘short flowers’ like daisies, clover and dandelions begin to grow!

March has been a BIG month for seal releases, as TEN more healthy Grey Seal pups went back home to the sea after completing rehabilitation! Cape Seahorse, Beluga Sturgeon and Purple Marsh Crab headed out early in the month, Seahorse having beat the odds, recovering from a dislocation on her back flipper. Good luck little guys!

This Valentine’s Day, our fantastic team of interns took a cue from our brave seal pups and charged into the chilly Irish sea to raise money for seal conservation! The group collectively raised nearly €2000 by pledging to take the icy plunge. If inspired to raise funds and awareness for SRI yourself, we would encourage you to start a Seal Dip of your own, or any other fundraiser idea you may have!

It’s moulting season for Ireland’s Grey Seals, which means they’re congregating along our coastlines. We’ve been delighted to spot a few of our own rehabbed seals out living their best lives! And we were brimming with pride to see our final common seal pups from last season finally make it out into the big wide world this past month!

Look at all we have accomplished in 2021 with the help of our amazing supporters! We can’t wait to help more seals, inspire and educate more members of the public, and restore more natural habitat in 2022!

We are rescuing Grey Seals from Ireland’s beaches left, right and centre as a stormy Autumn sets in! The Grey Seal pupping season was off to a slow start this year, and we were having an unusally quiet October… until two weeks ago!

A certain Arctic visitor has been causing quite the stir in Irish waters lately! First spotted in Valencia Island, Co Kerry back in March, the walrus affectionately dubbed “Wally”, has returned to Ireland and is making his way around our coastline. SRI has been following his movements closely, monitoring his condition, and helping to mitigate disturbance and damage in the coastal communities which he visits.

This past month we held a virtual Pup Shower to introduce our newest batch of common seal babies to the world! This event streamed live on our social media platforms, but in case
you missed it, you can catch it at the link below! Melanie gives a behind the scenes tour of the ICU, discusses a few rescue stories, and you even get to watch seal pups enjoying their
bathtime in the sunshine!

Feeling hopeless about the state of our oceans? This is YOUR chance to influence real-world change! Currently, Ireland’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) make up only 2% of our vast marine territory, just a small fraction of the 30% advised in the EU Biodiversity Strategy. We’re supporting the target of protecting at least 30% of Irish seas by 2030.

This adorable little boy was found on Sunday 6th of June on Murvagh Beach Co. Donegal, marking the start of the new pupping season! It was clear from the photos that this little pup was newborn and premature, as he still had some of his lanugo fur which common seals normally lose prior to birth.

A concerning trend has emerged in May: for the first time ever, SRI has had to rescue three seal pups a second time, who had been previously rehabilitated and released last year. Hydra, North Star and Galaxy are the familiar faces that were re-rescued this past month after spending only a matter of months in the wild.

After a long six months of closure to the public due to COVID-19 restrictions, we are absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to reopen our Visitors Centre to the public starting 1st of May! For the first several days we will be limiting our guests to Wexford residents, however, as of 10th of May intercounty travel will be allowed, so we are able to invite seal-lovers from all across Ireland to join us after that date! 

Happy Spring from all of us at SRI! We hope you get out and enjoy that sunshine in your local wild space. As the grey seal season has started winding down, we have had the opportunity to turn our attention to new projects, such as habitat restoration, biodiversity surveys, research projects, and centre improvements.

Our Seals in the News!

Some of our rescue seals have been making headlines this month! Among our released seals in January, we said goodbye to our superstar Réalt.His journey, from rescue through rehabilitation has been documented every step of the way by TG4. His story will be part of the network’s forthcoming “An Cuan” series on Dublin Bay and its biosphere, which will air later this year, so keep an eye out!

We hope you had a very Happy Christmas and wishing you a safe and healthy New Year! This year has been one of many challenges and unexpected surprises, which hasn’t been easy for anyone. We feel very fortunate, however, to have had the backing from our wonderful supporters to get us through it!

Happy Halloween from SRI. We have been keeping very busying rescuing lots of Grey Seal pups in trouble, especially after all of the strong storms we’ve encountered! In fact, we’ve seen between 50-80% increase in rescued seals since the start of this season compared last year, and are currently caring for 40 struggling pups, with plenty more on the way!

The leaves are starting to fall around our pools and there is a new briskness in the air–Autumn is officially here! That means that Grey Seal pupping season is in full swing and we have quite a few white-coats safely nestled in our ICU.

As the summer is starting to wind down, August has hit us with some wild weather, bringing in a whirlwind of new pups into trouble. We now have a staggering 26 planetary pups in our care, as well as our big boy Wax Myrtle who is ready and just days away from release.

With the summer in full swing and more pups coming into our Seal Rescue Centre every week, our volunteers are working hard to get these little blubbers eating fish on their own! During their rehabilitation journey, our goal is to nurse them back to health, but what a lot of people don’t know is that they usually don’t know how to eat on their own upon arrival!

It wouldn’t be June at SRI without baby Common Seals coming in, and what a June it’s been!

We are excited to announce the winning name theme for this upcoming year, that will start with the first Common Seal….Celestial Bodies!

With June fast approaching we are preparing for common seal pupping season! As the beaches start opening again, we hope you will all be on the look out here in Ireland for any pups who look poorly.

At SRI we believe that collaboration and solidarity are the best ways to overcome a crisis. To put this in action, throughout March and April we ran a fundraiser to support the work of another charity which has been working in the frontlines of Covid-19.

15th April 2020: Some updates to brighten your day during this challenging time!

We made a last-minute decision to say goodbye to our queen of the pool, Arctic ringed seal Cloudberry…

In February, SRI began an exciting new habitat restoration project… Learn more!

January is historically SRI’s busiest month for intakes, and following suit, we had 19 rescues this month!

This December we said goodbye to many of our stong and healthy seal pups who were finally ready for the wild!

Meet Sneezeweed! We know his approximate age because he was in the middle of moulting his lanugo (white baby coat).

October at the centre means Halloween festivities! We held our annual Halloween event…

September brought a chill to our Rescue Centre and the seals are loving these cooler temperatures!

August 10th marked our first ever Sustainable Summer Fest! Our Rescue Centre was taken over by sustainable product stalls, a busy kids area and the always ongoing educational tours.

Wondering who this little seal circle is? Meet Baobab, our Seal Of The Month for July!

On June 1st, Animal Planet and The Dodo launched the latest season of the heartwarming series ‘Dodo Heroes’ which tells stories  of humans helping animals around the world.

The season for flowers is finally here and Seal Rescue Ireland wants to help everyone make their garden pollinator friendly!