Mills drove more than three-and-a-half hours from Wasilla for the release. They’re just amazing,” she said, giggling on the beach. “They’re cute and fat and chunky and jiggly. She loves pinnipeds – especially seals – more than almost anything. Marie Mills is a member of the center and found out about the event when she got an email from staff. It was the first time in several years the center has held a public release because of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s amazing.” (Kaiti Grant/Alaska SeaLife Center)įor release day, the SeaLife Center invited volunteers and members to the long sandy beach. “I think the fact that we had to do emergency medicine on Cobalt her first day with us and the fact that we got her here to this day is crazy. “We all put our time into it, our love, our hopes and dreams into these animals and we want the best for them,” she said. She helped care for and train the seals and oversaw their release. Cobalt and Admiral have graduated from “fish school.” (Hope McKenney/KBBI)Ĭostner said it’s special every time the center releases a rehabilitated animal back into the wild, but there was something extra sweet about seeing Cobalt and Admiral swim away. And when they got released, the only evidence of their time at the center was a small blue tag with an identification number on their tail fins. They spent all summer at the SeaLife Center. And they were in rough shape - emaciated and dehydrated. They were newborns when they were spotted in early June hauled out on a Kasilof beach, their moms nowhere to be found. The seals’ release back to the ocean was a long time coming. The Alaska SeaLife Center Wildlife Response Program admitted the first two harbor seal pup patients of the summer on June 2, 2022. There were other harbor seals swimming in the surf nearby.Īs soon as the seals were in the water, the onlookers cheered. She stared at the quiet audience and slowly waddled to the bay. The release only took about five minutes.Īdmiral - a 50-pound male - booked it straight to the water, where he then waited for his sister Cobalt, who wasn’t so sure about the people hovering nearby. So it’s going to be a little bit scary for them.” “This is the most people they’ve ever seen in their entire lives. “We don’t want to spook them,” said Savannah Costner, an animal care specialist with the center’s wildlife response department. Staff had warned the crowd to hold their applause and cheers until the pups were safely in the bay. They were quiet as SeaLife Center staff opened the seals’ crates and the pups started to make their way to the ocean’s edge. The seals, named Cobalt and Admiral, spent the past two and a half months at the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, gaining weight and learning to catch and eat fish.Īfter passing their health checks, care specialists finally decided last month it was time for the seal duo to go back into Cook Inlet.ĭozens of adults and children came to watch on an overcast afternoon at Kenai North Beach. Two harbor seal pups who were rescued earlier this summer have returned to the wild. Admiral, a harbor seal pup rescued by the Alaska SeaLife Center, heads immediately to the ocean after being released from his crate on Aug.
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