Meet Barclay!

Meet Barclay!

Barclay is our newest patient at the National Marine Life Center. He is a harbor seal pup that stranded in Maine and was rescued by Marine Mammals of Maine. He was brought to our center for rehabilitation and (hopefully) eventual release back into the wild. He still had his umbilical cord attached when he first arrived. Additionally, there bites on his back from an unknown source.  Right now he is being kept separately from other animals until we can be sure he does not have anything contagious. He is getting bigger and stronger every day!

It takes a lot of work to take care of seal pups. Barclay is still too young for fish, so the staff at NMLC tube feed little Barclay five times a day. Right now he is still on formula, but soon we will transition him to fish gruel and eventually fish. Because he is still in quarantine, he has all of his own tubing equipment and gear and is kept away from our other seal pup, Belmont. Barclay started out in the dry holding room but was just moved to a larger pen with his very own pool. 

Even though little Barclay is expensive and  a lot of work to take care of, everyone at the NMLC absolutely adores him. It is hard to not treat him like a pet and talk to him because he is so cute and feisty, but it is important to keep human contact to a minimum so that he can be successful when released into the wild.

Barclay requires a lot of attention and expensive tools to keep him healthy. The staff, volunteers, and interns at the National Marine Life Center do the hands on portion of Barclay’s care, but we would not be able to take care of all the animals that we do without donations and help from the public. Thank you!