Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation has discontinued its marine mammal rehabilitation program for 2016 due to the loss of a federal grant.

The program, which cares for stranded or injured harbor seal pups, has been a part of Wolf Hollow for the last 30 years.

“It’s hard to think that we’ll have to turn them away this year,” said Wolf Hollow Executive Director Julie Duke. “That’s the hardest thing, especially for the staff that’s been caring for them for so long. Hopefully there won’t be a lot of pups that need care this year.”

The John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program from National Oceanic Atmospheric Association is meant specifically for marine mammal rehab and stranding networks, and comes with “stringent regulations and standards” that are “time consuming and costly,” according to a press release from Wolf Hollow. The grant funds vary from year to year, and is a national grant funding source.

“There’s a lot of competition, and everybody is doing really great work, all the stranded networks need funds,” Duke said.

The marine mammal rehabilitation program cared for an average of 22 seal pups annually, at a cost of $3,000 per pup. After being contacted by stranded networks, Wolf Hollow re-hydrates the pups and attends to any wounds or infections the pups have, and feeds them every four hours when they first receive them.

Initially they live in a tub, and then as they regain their strength they are moved into a small pool, then a deeper pool, and fed fish when their digestive system is working. When the pups reach their target weight, they are released with identification tags attached to them, designed to fall off after a period of time.

Duke said that every other aspect of Wolf Hollow will remain the same, as they continue to care for injured or abandoned animals that they receive. The center is currently looking at other ways to gain funding in order to resume the marine mammal rehabilitation program in 2017.

“We are aware that a growing number of harbor seal pups are orphaned, injured or displaced each year due to the increase of human visitation to the San Juan Islands and neighboring counties,” the Wolf Hollow press release said. The program receives stranded pups from all over, this summer receiving some from Whatcom County in addition to Lopez and Orcas.

The season with the highest number of stranded seal pups is during the summer, late June through July, during harbor seal breeding season. For islanders who find harbor seal pups stranded locally, call the San Juan County Marine Mammal Stranding Network at (800) 562-8832 or email them at hotline@whalemuseum.org.