New seal sanctuary opens in the Netherlands

(27 Apr 2025)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lauwersoog, Netherlands – 24 April 2025

1. Close of seal in the water
2. Various of the seal named Witje (the seal with a patch on its back) gliding in the water with other seal
3. Various of visitors looking at Witje and another seal from behind glass viewing window
4. Various of Witje and another seal paying in tank
5. Various of Sander van Dijk, curator of the WEC talking with visitors
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Sander van Dijk, curator, WEC:
"On a yearly basis, we roughly treat about 200 seals, but we see it getting less and less and less and that is because we are working much harder on trying to prevent seals from even needing rehabilitation in the first place, of course, by creating a better environment. But also being much sooner at the place where we can prevent situations from escalating."

7. Exterior of WEC building
8. Boat sailing
9. Various of seals relaxing in their tanks
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Sander van Dijk, curator, WEC:
"If we look at our own data over the past 15 years, we just see every year more seals that somehow get entangled in waste in the sea. Mostly fishing nets, but every year it is more and more and more."

11. Various of seals
12. Seals swimming in the water inside the tank
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Sander van Dijk, curator, WEC:
"They are adapted to living in seawater. It’s good for their fur. But also seawater, through its salt, has some properties that makes wounds heal faster, and these kind of things, therefore it is better for the seals."

14. Model of seal in glass display box
15. Focus pull from seal model to live seal resting in its tank
16. Close of a seal resting
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Adriaan Donszelmann, Project Director, WEC:
"When a seal is found and when it’s judged to be – that it is needed to be brought in, it’s been examined, will be examined to see what is wrong, which could be an external injury, because of the fishery and it can get injured. But also there are all kinds of diseases, like the lung worm. That is a common disease under seals, and if that is the diagnosis, it will be treated with medication, but if it’s an external injury, it can be healed by even operations. And then it stays here to recover during a couple of weeks before it’s being released in the sea again."

18. Various of Witje the seal gliding in the water with another seal inside tank
STORYLINE:
LEADIN:

A new state-of-the-art seal sanctuary has opened in the Netherlands.

The World Heritage Center, or WEC, is one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in the world.

STORYLINE:

Gliding gracefully through the waters at his new home, Witje pauses briefly to peer through a large window at the curious and admiring visitors.

The 4-month-old grey seal is a lucky survivor able to swim in one of nine brand new tanks at the World Heritage Center, or WEC, a recently opened seal rescue facility in Lauwersoog, in the north of the Netherlands.

He was brought in after being orphaned and was suffering from a swollen flipper and a damaged eye.

“On a yearly basis, we roughly treat about 200 seals,” says Sander van Dijk, the curator of the center.

"But we see it getting less, and less, and less and that is because we are working much harder on trying to prevent seals from even needing rehabilitation in the first place, of course, by creating better environment. But also being much sooner at the place where we can prevent situations from escalating."

In 2024, researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands counted around 24,000 seals across the Wadden Sea.

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