Video: Seal pup rescued after wandering onto N15 highway near Maasvlakte
On Friday morning, firefighters found an injured seal pup on the N15 near the Maasvlakte and took it to the A Seal shelter in Stellendam. The young seal was wounded near its eye, but the man who removed it from the road expects a good outcome.
“I’ve seen them in stranger places,” Ad van den Berge of Strand in Zicht, a foundation that responds to reports of seals in distress, told Rijnmond. He estimates the pup is about five weeks old.
The discovery was made around 8 a.m. “At first, it was thought that a garbage bag was lying on the road,” Van den Berge said. Someone in the fire truck later realized it was a seal pup, prompting firefighters to close the N15.
“At that moment, it was still quiet on the road,” Van den Berge said. “In that respect, he picked his moment well.”
Catching the so-called “crier” turned out to be easier than expected. “Within fifteen minutes, he was in a crate on the way to the shelter,” Van den Berge said.
Why the pup crawled onto the highway remains unclear, but Van den Berge has several explanations. “Sometimes it’s busy on the beach, and they search for a quieter spot elsewhere,” he said. “But pups are left behind by their mother after three weeks and then start looking for fish on their own. It’s possible this one was hungry as well.”
“At A Seal, he is being well cared for,” Van den Berge said. “Once he has healed and regained strength, he will be allowed back into the water. This pup has had incredible luck.”
