Seal Hospital100

Globally, the grey seal is one of the rarest seal species, with almost 50% of the world population living in British & Irish waters.

Each year, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, a voluntary organisation based in Cornwall, England, fields hundreds of reports of seal pups in distress. With the help of the Cornish Seal Sanctuary and the Cornish Seal Group, many of these pups are rescued and nursed back to health. On a few red letter days each year, those pups that have fully recovered are released back into the wild, shuffling down the beach to re-enter the waves once more.

Photographer Nick Upton has documented this heart-warming tale from rescue to release, as well as efforts to monitor wild seals on the rugged Cornish coastline.

Download our full story PDF, including text, here.