Break for freedom

Date Published: 29-Jan-2008

HUNDREDS of people turned up to watch the release of a young seal to the wild at Salthill on Saturday — three months after she was found beached on Inish Bofin and close to death.

Saoirse, the grey baby seal, was then six weeks old and weighed just 7 kilogrammes, which is only half the normal birth weight, and had sustained several injuries to her body.

Nursed back to health since by the Irish Seal Sanctuary, she weighed in at a healthy 33 kilogrammes when she was released in the water on Saturday.