The first seal pups of the season have been released back into the wild by Gweek’s Cornish Seal Sanctuary.

Grey seal pups Seal, Orca, Manatee, Loris and common seal pup Icy were all released at Gwithian Beach yesterday afternoon, after being delayed from earlier in the week due to the poor weather conditions.

Each planned release is a major operation involving several members of staff, with the sanctuary’s rehabilitation pool having to be drained and then each pup herded into a cage and transferred to a trailer, to be driven onto the beach.

Tamara, the curator at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, said: “We are all so pleased to have been able to release the pups; the first release is always particularly special.

“We’ll miss them because we’ve got to know them all so well, but at the same time it will be great to see them back in the wild where they belong.”

Usually as soon as a pup has reached 40kg and has received a clean bill of health they are then released back into the wild, with the sanctuary planning more releases over the coming months.

There are a variety of reasons as to why grey seal pups need to be rescued, from malnutrition to being separated from their mum at just a few days old.

Grey seal pup Seal was the first rescue of the season and was taken to the sanctuary at just five days old.

He was found and rescued by the animal care team from Portreath beach, weighing just 15kg and still with his full white ‘baby’ coat. He had not yet been weaned, and had various abrasions all over his body.

Icy,a female common seal pup, was a rather unusual rescue for the sanctuary, which primarily rescues grey seal pups as they are most predominantly found around the Cornish coastline.

She was found in September at Portmellon, Mevagissey at 12 weeks old, very malnourished and weighing just 11kg. As well as being underweight, the team found she also had an umbilicus infection and some superficial wounds around her body.

Now back to her best, she joined the four other pups who are now back in their natural environment.