{"id":131976,"date":"2025-09-09T19:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131976\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T19:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:49:08","slug":"the-caithness-husband-and-wife-team-rescuing-poorly-seal-pups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131976\/","title":{"rendered":"The Caithness husband and wife team rescuing poorly seal pups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven McKenzieBBC Highlands and Islands reporter<\/p>\n

\"CaithnessCaithness Seal Rehab and Release Centre<\/p>\n

Seals pups can be found injured or ill in summer and winter<\/p>\n

A husband and wife have dedicated their lives to saving seals found in difficulty on the Highlands’ rugged north coast.<\/p>\n

Phil and Clare Boardman started rescuing the animals eight years ago before setting up a hospital in 2022 at their home in Brough, near Dunnet Head – the most northerly point on mainland Britain.<\/p>\n

A sick seal pup can spend about four months receiving round-the-clock care, before being released back into the wild.<\/p>\n

“It’s lost its mum and hasn’t clue what life is about. It needs tender loving care,” said Clare on what motivates her. <\/p>\n

\"CaithnessCaithness Seal Rehab and Release Centre<\/p>\n

Phil juggles his seal rescue work with running a B&B<\/p>\n

Phil and Clare are volunteer marine medics with British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR).<\/p>\n

Clare also helps the Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS), a project that investigates whale, dolphin and porpoise deaths on Scotland’s shores.<\/p>\n

They decided to set up their own seal hospital because the nearest site equipped to look after the animals is more than 260 miles (418km) away in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

Clare said: “A lot of the seals weren’t surviving the journey down there so we started our own place.”<\/p>\n

Phil juggles his charity work with running the couple’s B&B, while for Clare looking after rescued poorly pups is a full-time job.<\/p>\n

She has had a life-long passion for wildlife, and worked for more than 20 years as a veterinary nurse.<\/p>\n

Clare said: “I’m from South Africa and when I first left school I worked as a trainee ranger in Kruger National Park – very different types of animals from what we deal with today, but I’ve always loved marine wildlife.”<\/p>\n

\"CaithnessCaithness Seal Rehab and Release Centre<\/p>\n

The Boardmans’ hospital includes a pool to help with the seals’ recovery<\/p>\n

The Boardmans’ Caithness Seal Rehab and Release Centre is in use all year because common seal pups are born in summer and grey seals in winter.<\/p>\n

Clare said summer was the busiest time as the tourist season increased the risk of seals being disturbed by human behaviour.<\/p>\n

“For grey seals in winter, pups can be injured during storms,” she added.<\/p>\n

BDMLR and Scottish SPCA alert the couple to calls about distressed seals.<\/p>\n

Once in the Boardmans’ care, a local vet carries out an assessment and takes blood samples to check for infections.<\/p>\n

Then at the hospital, the animals are weighed, measured and re-hydrated.<\/p>\n

\"CaithnessCaithness Seal Rehab and Release Centre<\/p>\n

Once fully recovered, seals are returned to the wild<\/p>\n

Pups have been treated for dog bites, organ failure and eye injuries.<\/p>\n

Some have arrived at the hospital affected by diseases.<\/p>\n

To help the pups recover, they are fed formula milk and fish. The centre can spend up to \u00a36,000 a year on fish alone.<\/p>\n

It has a licence for 14 seals at any one time, but can handle up to 16 in emergencies.<\/p>\n

On average, the seals are in care for four months before being released.<\/p>\n

Eighty seals have come through the hospital since it opened.<\/p>\n

Clare said the animals were provided with whatever care and attention they needed.<\/p>\n

She said she was not concerned they might become accustomed to human contact.<\/p>\n

“It’s a little baby that needs to be looked after, she said, adding: “But seals never lose their wild instinct.”<\/p>\n

The BBC Make a Difference Awards in Scotland aim to celebrate and recognise people for their work in local communities. <\/p>\n

Entries from across Scotland have been whittled down to 33 finalists across nine categories.<\/p>\n

The judge for the green award is Blythe Duff, a stalwart of the classic STV detective series Taggart.<\/p>\n

Duff portrayed the show’s character Jackie Reid from 1984 to 2011. She has also performed on stage on Broadway and the West End.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven McKenzieBBC Highlands and Islands reporter Caithness Seal Rehab and Release Centre Seals pups can be found injured…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-131976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}