The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) hotline received a telephone call on the 18th of March 2026 from a concerned member of the public about a young seal pup hauled on the rocks at Sennen Cove.
Alison, one of the BDMLR area coordinators, arranged for Alicia Wiley, Peter Perkins and Amanda Payne, volunteer marine mammal medics, to check on the seal pup. Alicia said "The pup had a nasty wound on her upper-left jaw, (suspected to be a burst abscess at the time), plus other cuts/wounds to her front and rear flippers also. Peter, Amanda and myself reported our findings back to our area coordinator (Alison), and the decision was made to do a full health assessment. Based on our findings from a thorough check of the pup, it was decided that she would be immediately uplifted to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary for urgent medical care and rehabilitation."
Upon arrival at the Sanctuary´s hospital, the animal care specialist team arranged for their Sanctuary´s vets team to visit. After an assessment of the pup, the vet found that Gelato had sustained a broken jaw. For now, Gelato has been given a course of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories to stabilise her in preparation for an operation to fix her jaw. Gelato´s wound are being cleaned daily. When she first arrived, Gelato was given 24 hours of fluids to re-hydrate her before carefully starting to introduce her to fish.
This 4 months old female grey seal pup has been named Gelato.
Update - 28th March 2026 : After a few days in the hospital, Gelato perked up and began eating fish whole by herself, is now incredibly bright.
Update - 10th April 2026 : Gelato was moved down to the outside nursery pools for her next stage of rehabilitation a few days ago. This means she is on the road to recovery and also has a deeper pool to swim in. This photo below was taken on the 8th of April 2026 in nursery pool number 3.
Pups in the pools will be learning how to behave in the wild, interacting with other seals and also competing for their fish, which are all vital skills they will need when they are released back out into the wild.
Update - 28th April 2026 : Gelato has been moved from the nursery pool to the rehabilitation pool. The rehabilitation pool is the final stage of the rescued seal pups recovery! The pups in this enclosure are now healed of any wounds, recovered from any illnesses, and some just need to put on a few more kilos to get to the target weight of 30+kg before they are released back into the wild. Click here to see a selection of photos of Getalo being moved into the rehab enclosure.
Gelato´s flipper tag ID number is SL386 (yellow).
Update - 7th May 2026 : Gelato has been joined by two other rescued seal pups, Churro and Hot Cross Bun, in the rehabilitation, this means they are on the road to recovery and will not be too long before they are returned to the ocean, they just need to put on a few more kilos. This photo was taken on the 6th of May 2026.
Update : Gelato has now fully recovered and is at the perfect weight of 30+kg, this means she is ready to thrive back in the wild! She was released on the 11th of May 2026.
During the release of Gelato, the Isaac and Bethan, part of the animal care team, were assisted by Alicia and Amanda, British Divers Marine Life Rescue marine mammal medic volunteers, who rescued this young seal from Sennen Cove two months ago.
Many of the pups were first responded to by British Divers Marine Life Rescue´s dedicated network of trained volunteers, who give up their own time to answer callouts, assist with rescues, and provide vital care for the animals in the critical days before they arrive at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary. This collaboration between the two organisations ensures that more animals can be reached quickly and given the best possible chance of survival.
