A young seal has been rescued from a beach popular with dog walkers after reports children were throwing stones at it.
The animal, thought to be only around five weeks old, was spotted on the stones at Minster Leas on the Isle of Sheppey this afternoon.
The young seal was spotted at Minster Leas on Sheppey this afternoon
The seal was at the bottom end of the beach.
A member of the public reported the pup to the British Divers Marine Life Rescue and a medic from Sittingbourne arrived at the scene at around 2pm.
Medic David Beal then contacted Kent Wildlife Rescue Service, based on Sheppey, for assistance.
British Divers Marine Life Rescue and Kent Wildlife Rescue attended
The charity’s founder Lorraine March said: “I am also a British Divers Marine Life Rescue medic so I attended to assist David as it was his first full call-out.
“We checked the seal over and everything seemed quite healthy.
“We weighed him and he was 23kg which is not a bad weight, so nothing concerned us about him.
People watched on as the seal was rescued
“But there were reports of children throwing stones and people were ignoring our advice to keep their dogs back, so we made the decision to move him to a safer, quieter spot.”
The seal was released further up the coast just before 6pm, where Lorraine said they watched him go back into the water “quite happily”.
The Thames Estuary is home to two types of seals, one is the grey seal and can be seen lying on beaches waiting for their food to go down.
The other, and smaller of the two, are common seals, which are also known as harbour seals.
It is estimated the Estuary is home to 2,866 grey and 797 harbour seals, according to Zoological Society of London.