Baltic Ringed Seal Foundation

When zoologists Vyacheslav Alekseev and Elena Andriyevskaya witnessed the deaths of orphaned seal pups at the Saint Petersburg Zoo – victims of insufficient care knowledge – they stepped up to make a difference. In response, they founded the Baltic Ringed Seal Foundation (Фонд друзей балтийской нерпы), dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and conservation of Baltic ringed seals, a species increasingly threatened by environmental shifts such as receding sea ice in the Gulf of Finland.

Their Center for Researching and Maintaining Marine Mammals in Repino is equipped to rehabilitate not only Baltic ringed seals, and grey seals, but Ladoga ringed seals. These endangered freshwater seals face their own set of challenges, including habitat degradation, pollution, and entanglement in fishing gear.

At the foundation, seals receive expert veterinary attention and individualized rehabilitation with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. Their success has not only given countless pups a second chance at life, but also helped raise public awareness about the fragility of this endangered species.

The foundation’s semi-permanent residents are sealebrities Kroshik, who has so far resisted release and came back to the center, and the younger Shlissik, both Ladoga ringed seals, who might both still get their chance at a return to the wild.