When the seal was found on the industrial estate, it was shivering a bit. Yet the animal is completely fine, says Van Egmond. “He is doing fine. He is very comfortable. We are going to take him soon and then he can go to the beach, where he belongs.”
We then drive after the seal guards to IJmuiden. Because that is the place where the seal will be released. A long journey, and the last part not too hot. “It’s quite cold on the beach,” says Natasja Schneiders, the other seal watcher, as we sit in the back of a truck on the way to the sea. “I have never experienced this, that a seal from Amsterdam comes to the beach.”