Hi All,
I have been in touch with Seal Rescue Ireland in relation to any assistance we can offer with helping the seal populations we encounter on our kayak trips. Seal Rescue Ireland are a charity and sanctuary who rescue, rehabilitate and release seals around the country. SRI would welcome our assistance with their rescue network as well as keeping an eye out for their tagged seals and helping with population monitoring. They have kindly offered to run a kayaker-specific training course for our members online. This course will include:
Rescue - Identifying and assisting seals in need of rescue and entanglement issues
Best practice - How to interact with seal colonies and what to avoid
Monitoring - Photographing and logging seal colonies
Tagging - Identifying and reporting rescue seals
At the end of the training you will be a qualified seal rescuer and, if you wish, you can join the SRI's network of volunteers. You will also receive an SRI hi-viz!
Normally the fee for rescue training is €50 which covers their costs and acts as a donation to the centre. They are offering the course to us for €35 pp.
They would like to run the course on the weekend of 23rd May or 30th May. If people are paddling in the morning, the course can be run in the afternoon. It should take two to three hours and will be conducted over Google Teams.
Let me know your preferences in replies. I'm hoping we can get a good few on board, the best practice element may be particularly useful for those involved in leading and trip planning.
Sam
