A GREY seal pup found malnourished and injured on a Portland beach is being nursed back to health.

Members of the public alerted coastguards to the animal’s condition after finding it beached and dying at Chesil Cove.

The call was passed to volunteer marine medic Adrianna Hawczak who rushed to the animal’s aid from her home in Dorchester.

The seal is now being cared for at a care centre in Somerset until she can be released back into the sea.

Miss Hawczak, 24, is a fresh water biologist who works at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Wool and as a volunteer marine medic for British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR).

She said: “I got a call from the BDMLR and went to Portland with my friend Robert Hatfield and found the seal on the beach.

“She really was just a bag of bones when we found her.

“Seal pups are supposed to be big balls of blubber but on this one you could see loose skin and pelvis bones, which is never a good sign.”

The pup, believed to be six to eight weeks old, weighed just 11.6kgs when she was found and had peck marks on her stomach.

Miss Hawczak said pups that age have normally separated from their mothers weighing around 40kgs in order to support themselves until they learn to hunt.

Another sign of ill health exhibited by the pup was a lack of mucus around its mouth and eyes.

Miss Hawczak said: “Seals often come ashore if they are malnourished and need a rest but this one would have died without help.

“I put her in the back of my car and drove her to the RSPCA’s West Hatch centre in Taunton, where she’s now being fed and looked after.

“Staff have called her Ellie after one of the staff members and she is well on the road to recovery.

“This is the first rescue that I’ve done and it felt very good.”

Miss Hawczak urged anyone who finds a marine animal in distress to contact the BDMLR on 01825 765545 or the RSPCA on 0300 1234999.