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Right from birth Gasket has been a project for all of us in Rehab. A caesarean born pup cut from the womb by native subsistence hunters, Gasket defied the odds. Not only did he survive those first critical hours after birth, Gasket thrived. The first thing he saw when he came into this world was a human face. How could he ever grow up to be a normal harbour seal when we would be his primary caregivers? Harbour Seals are generally intolerant of close contact with other seals except for the strong bond formed between mothers and pups. We worked hard at making his interaction with us short and unpleasant. Tubing was brief; a towel over the head, some manhandling and a tube being forced down his esophagus. He grew to very much dislike towels, but over time he was able to pretty much tube himself. He associated the tube with a warm full feeling in his tummy. At a distance Gasket was always curious of us, but if we broke that buffer zone he would get melodramatic, whine and retreat in the opposing direction. He was such a drama queen. When handling him he’d cry out as if he was being burned by our touch. He soon learned to roll from our grasp and as he got fatter and fatter it got harder and harder to restrain him. He was our most gregarious seal. He seemed to posses the most human qualities out of all of our seals.
There was always one thing about Gasket that blew me away; he took to the water like...well...a seal. He loved the water and even as a pup he demonstrated such grace when swimming. Harbour seal pups are able to swim and dive within minutes of birth, but that’s with mom. Gasket did all of this on his own. He never had issues with being active in the water like some of our other seals. As soon as that tote filled up he was rolling and slipping against the walls of the tote. When he was moved out into a condo he spent the majority of his day swimming in his condo pool. We would have moved him into an ODL earlier if he had not have had the issues he did with fish.
If you can believe it, Gasket liked being tubed. He could have cared less about the fish we tossed in with him during his swims. He was observed tracking his own poop more often than the fish. It wasn’t until we got some live salmon smolts to toss in did he start taking an interest. Finally, we got him to ignore his poop and track the little salmon and somehow he knew that the fish was something he was supposed to eat. He would kill and eat each little salmon we put in with him. Once we were confident he could track, kill and eat live fish the next step was to get him eating dead herring so he could be weaned off fish formula and gain some weight. For Gasket that was easier said than done. We were happy to see him be such a little hunter but he completely ignored the herring and whatever we did to it to make it interesting to him. We tried small pieces, big pieces, fish-like pieces, no heads, no tails and whole fish and still nothing. We starved him for a couple of weeks. Only tubing him one meal and tossing fish into his condo and still nothing. It was time to try force feeding. Force feeding wasn’t really forceful with Gasket. The fish head only needed to be pushed into the corner of his mouth and he took the fish no problem. Again the many facets to Gasket’s personality that constantly perplexed us. He still wouldn’t eat fish in his pool so we took the next step and left fish on his condo deck overnight. We came in the next morning and the fish were gone. He eventually progressed to eating fish we tossed into his pool. His next move was to the ODL. This area consists of a 5 ft deep in ground pool with a haul out area. Gasket did very well here and again spent most of his day in his pool swimming. Even though he was slow to get on fish he was still ahead of the rest of the seal kids. He had to wait another couple of weeks before he was able to meet another seal... or two.
Gasket graduated to the pre-release pool in anticipation of Muffler and Diesel joining him. There was really nothing to it, Muffler and Diesel were plopped on deck and we walked away. No huge confrontations or scraps; just the occasional snort and a vigorously waving foreflipper to ward off someone who has gotten too close. They spent their days swimming or hauled out on deck. It got pretty routine for us. We were supposed to interact with the seals in ODL 5 as little as possible. We’d check up on Gasket, Diesel and Muffler via camera and toss fish 4 times a day. Nothing unusual until a little over a week before Gasket was to be released.
We noticed Gasket squinting one day. And it wasn’t until during one of his blood draws that someone was able to have a good look at the eye. It turns out that he had some calcification on the lens. It kind of scared us. He was so close to release and this could potentially debilitate him. He was pulled from ODL 5 and put into one of the indoor pools where we could net him out daily to administer eye drops. The calcification didn’t really get better, but didn’t get worse either and since it was only in one eye he would still be able to function normally other than a bit of cloudiness seen out of the affected eye. So there it was Gasket was ready for release.
His release date was September 4th in Valdez, Alaska. I hear the release went well. I was unable to go as I was left to care for the whole of rehab for two days. Gasket was fitted with a satellite tag and had been tracked to the Valdez boat harbour the next day which wasn’t very promising but recently he showed up at Columbia Glacier outside of Valdez. This remote tidewater glacier is home to one of the largest year round seal colonies in South-Central Alaska. We are very excited and proud to see where he ended up.
Finally, to Gasket, farewell friend and I hope you have a long and happy existence.
There was always one thing about Gasket that blew me away; he took to the water like...well...a seal. He loved the water and even as a pup he demonstrated such grace when swimming. Harbour seal pups are able to swim and dive within minutes of birth, but that’s with mom. Gasket did all of this on his own. He never had issues with being active in the water like some of our other seals. As soon as that tote filled up he was rolling and slipping against the walls of the tote. When he was moved out into a condo he spent the majority of his day swimming in his condo pool. We would have moved him into an ODL earlier if he had not have had the issues he did with fish.
If you can believe it, Gasket liked being tubed. He could have cared less about the fish we tossed in with him during his swims. He was observed tracking his own poop more often than the fish. It wasn’t until we got some live salmon smolts to toss in did he start taking an interest. Finally, we got him to ignore his poop and track the little salmon and somehow he knew that the fish was something he was supposed to eat. He would kill and eat each little salmon we put in with him. Once we were confident he could track, kill and eat live fish the next step was to get him eating dead herring so he could be weaned off fish formula and gain some weight. For Gasket that was easier said than done. We were happy to see him be such a little hunter but he completely ignored the herring and whatever we did to it to make it interesting to him. We tried small pieces, big pieces, fish-like pieces, no heads, no tails and whole fish and still nothing. We starved him for a couple of weeks. Only tubing him one meal and tossing fish into his condo and still nothing. It was time to try force feeding. Force feeding wasn’t really forceful with Gasket. The fish head only needed to be pushed into the corner of his mouth and he took the fish no problem. Again the many facets to Gasket’s personality that constantly perplexed us. He still wouldn’t eat fish in his pool so we took the next step and left fish on his condo deck overnight. We came in the next morning and the fish were gone. He eventually progressed to eating fish we tossed into his pool. His next move was to the ODL. This area consists of a 5 ft deep in ground pool with a haul out area. Gasket did very well here and again spent most of his day in his pool swimming. Even though he was slow to get on fish he was still ahead of the rest of the seal kids. He had to wait another couple of weeks before he was able to meet another seal... or two.
Gasket graduated to the pre-release pool in anticipation of Muffler and Diesel joining him. There was really nothing to it, Muffler and Diesel were plopped on deck and we walked away. No huge confrontations or scraps; just the occasional snort and a vigorously waving foreflipper to ward off someone who has gotten too close. They spent their days swimming or hauled out on deck. It got pretty routine for us. We were supposed to interact with the seals in ODL 5 as little as possible. We’d check up on Gasket, Diesel and Muffler via camera and toss fish 4 times a day. Nothing unusual until a little over a week before Gasket was to be released.
We noticed Gasket squinting one day. And it wasn’t until during one of his blood draws that someone was able to have a good look at the eye. It turns out that he had some calcification on the lens. It kind of scared us. He was so close to release and this could potentially debilitate him. He was pulled from ODL 5 and put into one of the indoor pools where we could net him out daily to administer eye drops. The calcification didn’t really get better, but didn’t get worse either and since it was only in one eye he would still be able to function normally other than a bit of cloudiness seen out of the affected eye. So there it was Gasket was ready for release.
His release date was September 4th in Valdez, Alaska. I hear the release went well. I was unable to go as I was left to care for the whole of rehab for two days. Gasket was fitted with a satellite tag and had been tracked to the Valdez boat harbour the next day which wasn’t very promising but recently he showed up at Columbia Glacier outside of Valdez. This remote tidewater glacier is home to one of the largest year round seal colonies in South-Central Alaska. We are very excited and proud to see where he ended up.
Finally, to Gasket, farewell friend and I hope you have a long and happy existence.
