If you missed the royal wedding and weren’t able to jet over to Australia or Morocco in the last few months, you may have another opportunity to meet everybody’s famous royals. All you have to do is take a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium.
OK, so the Duke and Duchess of Sussex won’t actually be there in person. But here’s the next best thing: rescued baby harbour seal pups bearing their names.
Yes, these tiny seals recovering at the aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre are named Meghan Mackerel and Prince Herring.
We repeat: Meghan Mackerel and Prince Herring.
The seal pups were rescued separately, but were both found in southern B.C. last month. Meghan Mackerel was rescued first from Sidney Island, near Victoria. She was underweight and covered in the soft fur of a premature pup.
Her name came from a database of punny celebrity names, said Emily Johnson, a manager at the aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.
“Every year we pick a different naming theme, and this year it’s fish puns,” Johnson told HuffPost Canada. “We’ve been building a list of names, and now we just get emails with different employees from the aquarium — they just send over name ideas in an email.”
Some other pups at the rescue centre include Seal-ine Dion, Dwayne “The Rockfish” Johnson, and Tuna Fey.
Two days after Meghan Mackerel’s arrival, a male seal pup was rescued from Crescent Beach in Surrey. His name, Prince Herring, “was kind of a no-brainer” given the timing.
”I think it was sort of a dream that we might have a scenario like that,” Johnson said.
Like Meghan, Prince Herring was also a preemie. He was in pretty rough condition in his first few days at the rescue centre, but Johnson said he’s recovered nicely.
Summertime is pupping season, and more baby seals means a busy time for the rescue centre’s staff. When harbour seal pups are born, their mothers will often leave to forage for food, but sometimes they don’t make it back.
The rescue centre will wean the pups and teach them how to eat fish before they’re released back into the wild.
No word yet on whether a love affair between Meghan Mackerel and Prince Herring is imminent, but they “don’t seem to be agitated by each other’s company,” which Johnson said is a good sign in the world of seals.
They’ll likely be released back into the wild in mid-August, once they reach a weight where they can survive on their own.
Whether a baby Archie follows is their business, not ours.
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