Seal Django lies with her eyes closed in one of the outdoor pools of the Pieterburen Seal Center, which has been located in Lauwersoog since April this year. When she swims a bit, it becomes clear why she is here. Around her neck she has an open wound, almost ten centimeters wide in some parts, caused by being entangled in a fishing net.
Seal pups are extremely curious, sometimes become entangled and become trapped very quickly as they grow, says Hester de Vries, communications manager at the centre. “There have been 45 reports of entangled seals like Django this year, two of them were so emaciated that they died in the shelter.” The Seal Center is raising the alarm and calling on people: clean up your waste and take what you find with you.
This is probably just the tip of the iceberg, we don’t know what is happening at sea
Each case is one too many, says De Vries, but there are actually more than in the past. “A fourfold increase compared to the period between 2010 and 2020. And this is probably just the tip of the iceberg, we don’t know what is happening at sea. We see animals coming in with the craziest things. Fishing nets and plastic bags of course, but open Frisbees and balloon ribbons also cause very ugly wounds. Suturing is not an option for a seal, they tear it open with every movement.”
Django needs to get stronger now, it is not possible to stitch a deep wound on seals.
Photo Kees van de Veen
Better with both types
Things were going quite well for the seal in the Netherlands for a while. Two species live along the coast, specifically the Wadden area: the common and the gray seal. The gray virtually disappeared due to hunting, disease and habitat disturbances until it returned to the Wadden area in 1980. The number of common seals reached a low point in 1976, with only 480 individuals counted.
After that, things improved for both species, except for 1988 and 2002, when the harbor seal population was approximately halved due to a virus epidemic. Until 2013, both gray and common seals are on the rise again, but after that growth stagnates and the number of common seals even declines again. 23,772 seals were counted in the international Wadden Sea in 2024, a decrease of 16 percent compared to 2020, according to a report by the Compendium for the Living Environment.
“We don’t find any carcasses, we simply don’t know where they are. It’s a mystery
Many young seals in both the common and gray seals disappear without a trace. “We’re not finding any carcasses, we just don’t know where they are. It’s a mystery,” David Goldsborough, who studies the declining population, said last year in return for Omrop Friesland. He mentions warming of the sea water, the departure of fish to more northern waters and the construction of wind farms as possible causes.
Even at the Seal Center, which has also been called the Wadden Sea World Heritage Center (WEC) since the move, they have no idea how the pups can disappear. Even with fewer puppies, they are still busy here. At the beginning of November they received their first winter puppy: Dropje. The seal center has two peak times. The common seal gives birth in the summer, the gray in the winter. Licorice, slightly shedding, is still in intensive care.
Lungworms, seal Anton’s operation and loads of fish.
Photos Kees van de Veen
Opposite her, in the outdoor pool next to Django, lie four considerably larger summer puppies: Wednesday, Fester, Cissel and Bobbie. These harbor seals all came in with . “We have a surprising number of them this season, we don’t know why.” The seal can contract all kinds of things anyway. In the ‘experience’ in the WEC they have displayed examples of well-known parasites: louse, mites, lungworm, tapeworm, heartworm and stomach worm. And then there is the smallpox virus and bird flu has also been diagnosed in seals in the past.
Visible
In the new Seal Center, everything in the building, completed in April, has been set up for the best possible care and almost everything is visible to visitors. From the intake room, the intensive care unit and also the operating room where an operation is currently being performed on Anton. They need to remove a broken tooth with the nerve exposed. So far this year, the WEC has taken in around 160 seals – even now the phone is ringing constantly.
“Good afternoon Seal Center with Emmy. Send me a thirty-second video so I can review it.” Emmy Venema is “stranding coordinator,” says De Vries. “She provides guidance from the first observation to care and release.” This call is about a suspected puppy on the dike near Moddergat. When she looks at the images she concludes that she has to go there.
Stranding expert Emmy Venema picks up a puppy at Moddergat.
Photos Kees van de Veen
After a short car ride, she stands with the puppy – face mask, hairnet, gloves. She struggles to examine the predominantly white animal. The animal struggles, growls, is angry. Seals, the largest predator in the Netherlands, are not as cute as they look. Venema concludes: no more umbilical cord, the teeth have come through, he weighs 14.8 kilos. “He should be 30 kilos. Maybe mother was scared off because people got too close. Our advice: always keep a distance of thirty meters.”
Okay, I’ll take him
On her phone she shows a video of a puppy of about the same age. “This is what he should look like.” A plump seal, with a good layer of blubber. The vet calls back. “Okay, I’ll take it,” she says. While she is opening the box in which the animal can be transported, she receives a call again. A puppy in IJmuiden. “Send a video.” Coffin closed, puppy in the car, she has to move on.
Django is doing better, although she is still receiving pain relief. Now it is a matter of watching, monitoring, strengthening. There is a good chance that the seal will be able to return to sea before Christmas – with a scar as a souvenir of a curious encounter with litter left behind by humans.
Also read
Pieterburen must continue without the seal center: ‘Understandable, but a shame for the village’
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