The Alaska SeaLife Center received a report from Homer of a stranded harbor seal in December.
Woodie: The volunteers were notified about the seal and went out and checked it out, they had already notified us and were authorized to pick him up over at the end of the spit in Homer, Lands End. We brought him back to The Sealife Center to assess him and see what was going on, we knew that he wasn’t doing well at the time.
That was the Center’s Curator of Mammals Derek Woodie who said after assessing the seal, who has since been named Bryce, it was determined he was blind.
Woodie said the center’s vets decided it was likely from a head trauma, though the exact cause was unknown.
Bryce is one of many harbor seals which the SeaLife Center took in last year and Woodie said what sets him apart is his outgoing personality.
Woodie: “He uses his other senses, something that a lot of other harbors seals don’t, they use their sight as their main sense. Harbor seals by nature are just kind of skittish, they’re anti social, even with each other and for people, even though they’re probably the most prevalent marine mammal that we have in the area, you don’t see them a lot of times because they stay to themselves but he is very adventuresome, he comes out for training sessions and interacts with things using his whiskers to feel things, he’s a lot of fun to work with and watch and see him play with different things we’ve set up for him.”
Soon Bryce will be put on a list in order to find him a more permanent home as it was decided not to release him due to low chance of survival for a blind seal.
Although Bryce the blind harbor seal is not currently out where the public can see him, Woodie said many of the other harbor, bearded, and ringed seals that were brought in through the center’s rescue program are available for viewing.