Learning about Ireland's native seal species at the Irish Seal Sanctuary and Skerries Harbour in County Dublin.
Reporting for 'Echo Island’ Ruth Dowling visits the Irish Seal Sanctuary run by Mary and Brendan Price at their home outside Garristown in County Dublin.
The Irish Seal Sanctuary takes in seals from all over the country. Ireland has two native seal species; the common seal and the grey seal. Ruth Dowling meets Ivy, a common seal rescued from Ballyconneely in Connemara, County Galway. Ivy got into difficulty when her mother died and she has been cared for at the Irish Seal Sanctuary since she was two days old.
Ivy will eventually be returned to the wild. In the meantime,
She has to put on a lot of weight and be really fat before she can survive the winter out in the sea.
With the help of a boatman, Ruth Dowling goes in search of grey seals off the coast of Skerries in County Dublin. At sea she finds plenty of cormorants and black-backed seagulls but no grey seals. She discovers they are all back in the harbor with the fishermen.
This episode of ‘Echo Island’ was broadcast on 1 October 1996. The reporter is Ruth Dowling.
