(emka74 / Shutterstock.com)
As our Nippon TV News video reveals below, a round-the-clock livestream from the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre (Pieterburen, The Netherlands), has gone viral on social media halfway across the world, in Japan.
In the Land of the Rising Sun, where it’s referred to as the “seal kindergarten”, viewers are gripped by the footage of the rescued baby seals broadcast by the seal rescue and rehabilitation center.
Cuteness personified and a fortuitous significance for Japanese fans
The huge round eyes and cutely rounded bodies of the lively seal pups frolicking in the water of around 10 pools, according to their rescue status, have scores of Japanese people gripped.
As Nippon TV News points out, Japanese fans are quick to point out that the seals’ upright floating position resembles the lucky floating tea leaf in a cup of tea.
Japanese seal center enthusiasts have also been open about the feelings of calm and healing that watching the seals in the silent lifestream gives them.
More about the Pieterburen Seal Centre and its connection with Japanese supporters
As the rescue and rehabilitation center explains on its website, in 50 years, it has grown into Europe’s main seal hospital, as well as a major international seal research hub. The facility cares for and treats seals that have been injured by fishing nets and trash. Increasingly, the emphasis is on prevention rather than cure, or as the center itself puts it: “prevention if possible, shelter if necessary.”
As a knowledge institute, the scientific work of the Pieterburen Seal Centre covers several spheres. For instance, it checks how the Wadden Sea and its inhabitants are faring, studies different seal species, seal behavior, and site fidelity in seals. It also investigates health related topics relevant to the treatment of seals such as antibiotic resistance, viruses, the impact of microplastics, and entangled seals.
At the center near Groningen, a two-hour car ride north from Amsterdam, Marco Boshoven, of the center’s PR department, tells Nippon TV that the center was pleasantly surprised by the multiple Japanese comments in the lifestream recently, something that seldom happens.
He told Dutch News that the surge in the popularity of the webcam was spotted by the center’s communications manager at the start of August, 2024, when the Japanese X message had reached a reported 11 million people! This figure had swelled to over 19 million views by August 6, as reported in Dutch Review.
Boshoven has shared with Dutch News that the center’s workers are busy communicating with its Japanese supporters: “We are answering their questions via a translation programme, so there’s an educational side to it as well,” he remarked.
Marco and the center’s staff are grateful for the increase in donations that this Japanese interest has triggered. This has helped it to purchase more food and medicine for its charges, and has boosted its budget so it can continue its rescue and rehabilitation work.
The joy of releasing rehabilitated seals back into nature
None of the rescued seals remain in the shelter permanently. Once recovered, and granted the green light from local veterinarians, these rehabilitated seals are returned to the Wadden Sea, after a seaside “graduation” ceremony.
As the Pieterburen Seal Centre’s website explains, “Releasing seals is one of the most beautiful moments of our work. After months of recovery, the animals are finally ready to return home to the Wadden Sea. It is incredibly special to see how a seal comes out of the release box and carefully explores the surroundings. One waits calmly, the other shoots into the water like a rocket. Every release is unique and memorable.”
Members of the public are warmly invited to witness the moving seal release moments in person!
