Staff at the National Aquarium Animal Care and Rescue Center are rehabilitating four young grey seals, hitting the center’s capacity for seals, the National Aquarium said Wednesday.

Employees at the Fayette Street rescue center will teach these vulnerable young seals to forage for food while they receive fluids, antibiotics and treatment for their health needs, according to a news release. This year is the busiest for seal rescues since 2019, it said.

All four seals are named after Baltimore neighborhoods, this year’s theme for rescued seals and turtles that come through the rescue center.

Marine Education, Rescue & Rehabilitation Institute, one of the aquarium’s partners, first found seal pup Woodberry on a Fenwick, Delaware, beach on Feb. 25. He was malnourished with infected puncture wounds believed to be from a larger animal. Since arriving in Baltimore, Woodberry has been recovering and is now able to swim and eat independently.

Evergreen, another grey seal pup, had puncture wounds likely from a shark attack. Now receiving antibiotics and pain medication, Evergreen is recovering on land.

Waverly had infected puncture wounds and a lacerated flipper but is now eating independently. Particularly young and vulnerable without her mother, Arcadia had puncture wounds, an eye infection and oral trauma. As of this past Friday, she was not yet stable, the release said.

Seals like the four currently being treated typically need five to six weeks in order to be injury- and infection-free and reach the 25 kilograms, or 55.12 pounds, required to be released back into the wild, the aquarium said. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration will give the final go-ahead on the seal’s return.

A recently established colony of harbor and grey seals on Cape Henlopen in Delaware is the cause of the increase in seal rescues across the Delmarva region, the aquarium said. Seal rescue season lasts from winter through May. The aquarium recommends maintaining a distance of 150 feet from seals when encountering them on beaches.

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