Seals and seal pups: Please keep your distance!

Seals and seal pups: Please keep your distance!

As human interactions with wild marine mammals increase, the risk of disturbing or injuring the animals also increases.

Seals

Seals spend about a third of their time on land. They come up on shore on a daily basis to rest, socialize, escape predators, give birth, nurse young and bask in the sun to keep warm.

If you come across a live seal please keep your distance as seals on shore are easily disturbed, and can inflict a serious bite if agitated.

Seal pups

Seal pupping season occurs during spring and summer, a peak time for boaters and beach goers. Each year people find baby seals, commonly known as seal pups, on shore and pick them up thinking they have been abandoned. The mothers may simply be out foraging, or frightened away by human presence and will shortly return to reclaim and tend to their pup.

Should you encounter a lone seal pup please keep your distance, keep your pets leashed, and do not attempt to remove the seal as it may not need rescuing and your actions can endanger its life.

How can you help?

Do not:

• Do not touch, move, disturb or harass the seal.
• Do not try to feed the seal.
• Do not pour water on the seal as they are often on shore to dry off.
• Do not force the seal into the water.

Do:

• Do stay a safe distance away from the seal.
• Do keep pets and children away to avoid harmful interaction.
• Do observe the condition, size, and location of the seal.
• Do call the Fisheries and Oceans Canada hotline if you see a seal being harassed or harmed.
• Do call a seal rehabilitation centre (see other side of pamphlet) if you believe the seal is sick, injured or abandoned.

Disturbing marine mammals is prohibited under the Marine Mammal Regulations.

As per section 7(2), disturbance is defined as a number of human activities including:

• Feeding, swimming, or interacting with a marine mammal.
• Moving a marine mammal (or enticing/causing it to move).
• Separating a marine mammal from its group.
• Trapping a marine mammal or a group either between a vessel and the shore, or between a vessel and other vessels.
• Tagging or marking a marine mammal.

To report a marine mammal disturbance or harassment, or dead marine mammal

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Observe, Record, Report (ORR) line: 1-800-465-4336

To report a seal that you believe is injured or abandoned

Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society: 604-258-SEAL (7325)

For more information, email: mammals.marine@dfo-mpo.gc.ca.

DFO website: Pacific marine mammals and sharks.

© His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, 2024
Cat. No. Fs144-75/2024E-PDF
ISBN 978-0-660-72997-8

Correct citation for this publication: Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 2024. Seals and seal pups: Please keep your distance! 2p.