Grey and common seal pups are frequently encountered alone on beaches, but intervention is often counterproductive unless the pup is genuinely in distress.
Well-meaning human intervention with healthy seal pups causes unnecessary stress and can break the mother-pup bond, condemning a healthy pup to rehabilitation. Stressed pups that escape interference may be too weak to find food subsequently. However, genuinely distressed pups with wounds or entanglement need specialist care that the public cannot provide. Learning to distinguish between resting pups and those in distress is a critical wildlife welfare skill.