Cornish Seal Sanctuary at Gweek

One of my favourite days out in Cornwall is at Gweek and it always gives me mixed emotions to see the fantastic work that is carried out at the Seal Sanctuary situated in the Helford estuary. Some of the seals and sea lions there will stay for the rest of their lives, sometimes because of injury or because they have been rescued from zoos and cannot be released back into the wild.  Others will be helped back to the sea, especially the seal pups rescued every year and nursed back to health with a lot of love and treatment.

So far in 2013, the Seal Sanctuary has rescued and saved 42 seal pups with the last of them being released a few weeks ago.  No matter how hard the team try, it must be very emotional to see them swim away, especially the cute ones!  How can you resist those huge eyes and whiskers?

The seal sanctuary offers a great day out for all the family, you can have lunch there and get souvenirs while helping the sanctuary with their work.  You can even be a keeper for the day or have a behind-the-scenes tour of Cornwall’s seal hospital.

My favourite seal was the one-eyed Babyface who is thought to be the oldest captive seal and has surprised everyone by becoming a dad at the grand old age of 36 (over 80 in human years)!  The baby has not been named yet and keepers are waiting to see if it is a girl or a boy.

The same weekend that I was there saw a sponsored walk to raise money for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society so there is always something new to see and you get that fuzzy feeling knowing that everything is being done to help these beautiful marine mammals.