LEWES, Del. - Seal season is in full swing, but the Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute (MERR) is seeing an increase in young seal pups along the shore. Juliet, found at Cape Henlopen's "The Point", is the latest of multiple rescues.
Young pups can be identified by their white fluffy coat. The institute says it has only ever rescued one pup so young and just this past weekend four were found in Lewes and one in Ocean City.
Such young pups still rely on their mother to survive so these seals are receiving rehabilitation care in Baltimore and New Jersey before being released when they're old enough to take care of themselves.
MERR Executive Director, Suzanne Thurman, believes this happened now because of high tides,
"We had flood tides all week and because these the the colony and the pup are in a precarious situation out on the rocks, on the break wall, it could be that the water levels were so high it wash them off the rocks and they just kind of drifted into this shoreline."
Thurman also says rescuing such young pups is essential to their survival because adult male seals are aggressive towards the pups without protection from their mothers.
If you see a seal resting on the beach or elsewhere, please call MERR right away at 302-228-5029, and keep a distance of 150-feet from the seal.