Vancouver Aquarium adopts 2 injured harbour seals

Two rescued harbour seals arrived at their new home in the Vancouver Aquarium this week. 

Skeena and Pym are both females around six months of age.

They're also blind. 

"They are doing great so far ... they are starting to get used to their new environment," said Nadine Trottier, marine mammal trainer at the aquarium.

Trottier said Skeena was found in South Surrey in August with very severe eye injuries. She is fully blind in one eye, and the other eye had to be removed surgically. 

Pym was found in September near Sooke, on Vancouver Island's Southern tip. Trottier said she was extremely dehydrated and had multiple face wounds when they found her. They later discovered she has cataracts. 

Both seals have been cared for in the aquarium's Marine Mammal Rescue Centre over the past few months.

Trottier said the centre receives about 200 harbour seals every year, most of which will be released back into the wild. 

But Pym and Skeena would not be able to catch fish in the wild without their vision. 

"It would just be so hard for them to be able to truly survive out in the ocean," said Trottier. 

Trottier said marine rescuers are unsure where their injuries came from, but they don't believe either case to be a human interaction. 

She said it may have been an interaction with another animal that caused the injuries. 

Staff are in the process of training the seals to respond to little splashes in the water to signal feeding time. 

"They can respond to that, come to the surface, and we will feed them fish straight to their mouths so they get reinforced right away for it."

They have also started introducing them to some toys, including kelp strips and buoys to keep them mentally stimulated. 

Once Skeena and Pym are accustomed to their environment, staff will introduce them to the other harbour seals and move them to a bigger enclosure.

"These two are going to become ambassadors for their species where we get to educate the public about them, to get them to fall in love with them, so that they want to help them out in the ocean," said Trottier.