TravelingMel.com
Hey seal lovers we are about to rescue some seals here in
Ireland actually we're not going to rescue them because they've already been rescued these little pups got left by their moms or something happened and they
Were stranded and they were rescued and we get to volunteer to help
Feed and clean and do whatever else you do to rescue seal pups
So we have about like 400 volunteers all across Ireland
And so what will happen is, we will get a call on the beach
there's a seal on the beach, and it looks in distress so we have a 24/7 hotline that we have and
So we'll ask them to send pictures and as much information as they can about the seal
And then we will contact our volunteers see who's able to go to the seal pick it up
And then what we usually do is since it's kind of, it's a really big country
So we don't want to like have people drive for hours five hours to here, so we'll just do like a relay train
And so you know you we try not to have them drive more than two hours
So we'll just kind of bring him down make their way down
We actually just got a new one in yesterday
So it wasn't so far from here, it was actually just about an hour south of here. It wasn't too far
When we come Saturday? They were saying they were waiting for a seal to come in?
What's its name? Oh? Yeah?
Its name is, what's his name mad mardigan mad
Mad Martigan
Right now they're getting fed four times a day starting at 8:00 in the morning and ending at 8:00 in the evening
And so they get way twice a week, and so we have to update how much food they're getting
So it's like it's half fish soup and half electrolytes.
We can have that for lunch.
Exactly.
I don't feel hungry
And then we'll do a force feed and so like I said they have
They swallow their fish whole and so it basically it's just having the fish in their throat
kind of like sticking it far enough back that their instincts and their muscle reflexes take over and they just swallow the fish whole
This is our ICU and you have two animals in here right now, this is kind of where they first come in
It's hard not to pet him.
yeah they bight pretty hard though
They were able they were at the right weight, and they were able to free feed easily
and without any issues so we moved them into this pool. This is our nursery pool.
You said this is normally full of water. Yeah
Yeah, I'm draining it right now cuz we're gonna clean it
so this also gets cleaned once a week
For about a month before their release and so that really gives them enough time
become wild again
So one of the things we were concerned about, not really concerned but curious about because you have to be careful
When you're a responsible tourist is
the accreditation for a rescue center and the Irish seal or the seal rescue Ireland is accredited by
Some nonprofit places, but also by the government, and they're regularly checked to make sure they're adhering to
all the ethical and scientific and health
Standards that are part of their licensing so we were relieved to hear that we assumed that was the case
But it's good to know for sure
right now. They have primarily
common seal or harbor seals and
The gray seals the other type of seal that they get a lot of are starting to pup right now
So they'll start to get pups from there that need rescuing pretty soon
They name them each season on a theme and this year's theme is wizards and magical
theme and so there's like Hagrid and Harry and some other stuff
And then they're going to name the first grey seal they get Gandalf
All right, I'm gonna carry her out through that way. Let's go you guys and over on that side
where if you want if you want to get a good picture of her face and you can stand further back perfect
So right down here in this bin is
Our baby seal that we're gonna clean the kennel up or the boys are it's pen smells like sturstrumming or the fermented herring from
Sweden and
So we'll see how the boys handle that and how I handle it, but they're gonna give it a shot. They're good sports
This thing is absolutely adorable
It has giant eyes, neoteny eyes that just cry out for for us to help it
typically you don't want to do that without the pros telling you what to do, so we're gonna clean the kennel and
Try to clean from the cleanest to the dirty in that order so normally
We'll start on the outside
And then kind of work on the inside wall, and then we'll do the floor
And then we'll do the the mat that she has and then the last thing we'll do is the bathtub
Well I'm really impressed with the boys
They're not reacting to the smell at all.
They're jumping right in I don't know why I should be surprised about that cuz that's kind of their style
Very cool
That's either Sabrina or panoramix
What'd you think Finn?
Fun
tell me what you're doing telling people what you're doing.
I'm brushing the walls, cleaning the place
What are you cleaning off?
Uh seal poop?
How's it smell?
I got used to it, but at first it smells like...herring, sour herring
Mean they get pretty dirty. the animals get fed four times a day, so there's a lot of
Stuff coming in and out of there of seals so we really have to make sure things are get cleaned and we do
Clean like this like a general cleaning
Everyday so what they're right doing right now is kind of what we do every day for all these seals
And it just really helps get all of that
Fish extras and fish bits and seal waste and all that stuff out
and
For some for some cases like if we're moving seals around
We'll do an extra deep clean
and so then we'll spray it everything down with bleach and then give it a good rinse before we put the seal in but the
General cleaning is just with soap and water
Does its job
How was it?
This clean, you know the seal poop was actually pretty fun
It's kind of it we got those buckets, so I'm not sure if you can see them
And we put our brush in basically just scrub everything away first the walls
Well first the outside, and then the walls and um sorry brain freeze then the poor then the mat
And then the tub in order from cleanest to dirtiest
Yes fun great
What'd you think of theBaby seals, what'd you think of the baby seals
awesome
Finn just told me he's going to change he changed his mind about his occupation and now he wants to be a part-time musician
And a part-time steal poop cleaner
After they keep down the fish soup in the electrolytes
And they seem interested in fish we got to go through a fish school with them
And so it kind of starts by drawing a couple fish in the bath and seeing if they're interested in it
and then we'll actually get on them and
Have fish in our hand and we'll kind of put it in their throat far enough aback that their
Reflexes and their instincts take over and so they just instinctly start to swallow the fish
So this is our pre-release pool once the seals are in the nursery pool are about 25 to 30 kilos
and they're able to eat well on their own that will move them into the pre-release pool as you can see it has a
high fence on it
So we really want to get them not accustomed to humans because up until this point they're really gotten used to us
and they see humans and they
Associate us with food and we really don't want that in the wild so we have this high fence to kind of keep them
enclosed and private
So what you're seeing now is during the feeding we won't even
Show our faces when we're feeding them
So we'll throw them over the fence so that they
Just they don't associate humans with food which is what we really want when they're in the wild
This is one of these things that's so cool about unschooling or world schooling or any kind of
Education is to try something like this and see the kids really get into what it's actually like to work at an animal rescue
or to work with marine
mammals and
Such a cool opportunity that I'm really glad we can get some of these things happening for them
All right, they have cleaned out the outdoor pool, and now they're gonna break up some fish for a feeding time
This is how we get our fish in these big blocks like that. They're all frozen so we got to do is
We're trying to gently
Do them apart like that and that'll be the good ones in there
And then the ones that rip is there a bucket right over there
Yeah, yep for the ones that rip will go in there you can start at the top and kind of work your way down
We do three kilograms of fish
Three kilograms, going to be a lot of fish
Well that turned out to be an even better experience
than I thought it was it's really, that I thought it was going to be, it was cool seeing the kids really get into the
Cleaning and the fish pulling apart and learn a lot so the program is called rescuer for a day and it is
seal rescue Ireland and if
You are in this part of Ireland or online you should definitely check them out
And they are supported by donations, so if you feel like supporting some seals
send some cash or drop by and adopt a seal
and you can support us by sharing this video giving us a thumbs up liking and
Sharing it with your friends, which I already said, so just do it.
nice segue.
Thank you
We're just going to Keep walking until I'm done filming
Ok bye