| Nelson - Arrived 11/08/03 | |
| Nelson came to the sanctuary from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR). He had been spotted by the a Warden at Dunnet Bay on the 2nd of August lying on some rocks off of Battery Point walk in Castletown. Being thin and with no mother around he was taken to a local vet for a more thorough examination. His only real problem was found to be his very thin frame. | 
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 | He has been weaned off of his Multi-milk formula and onto fish with great ease and is now living full time in the weaning pool. Nelson has already learned to take large pieces of herring into his mouth in one go. As yet he has not mastered eating whole herring but that is most likely due to the size of the fish in comparison to him! Once he is a little bigger he will manage to eat them with no effort at all. |
| UPDATE 02/11/03 | |
| Nelson has now moved from our weaning pool to the outdoor pools, he is eating his fish very well. He was unfortunately delayed in his move outside because of a slight lungworm burden. This infection was treated immediately but takes 17 days for a complete course and then another 2-3 days to retest a faecal sample and be given the all-clear. This means Nelson´s progress was temporarily put on hold, but since he still gained weight well there were not any long-term negative effects. He is now enjoying life outside and has reached his release weight of 30kg. Now we need to wait for a favourable weather forecast before he can return to the wild. | |
| UPDATE 10/12/03 | |
| Nelson has now been returned to the wild. On Wednesday the 19th of November Nelson, Rona and Homer were all taken to our release site two hours south of the sanctuary. When he got to the beach and could smell the sea air Nelson started to push at the lid of his travel box and tried to release himself. As soon as he hit the water he zoomed in, body surfing his way to deep waters. He stayed around the release site for a while, porpoising out of the water. He was obviously glad to be able to fully stretch his flippers but didn´t want to leave until the other two were ready. | 
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