At Japan's lone facility dedicated to seal protection, the animals get no names. Doing so would only increase the heartbreak of the staff when returning them to the wild.The Okhotsk Tokkari Center on the Sea of Okhotsk in Mombetsu, Hokkaido, rescues injured or weakened seals who have washed up on shore before releasing them back into the sea after they have recovered."Tokkari" means "seal" in the indigenous Ainu language. Launched in the 1980s at a time when locals viewed seals as harmful pests to the fishing industry after a surge in their population, the rescue operation has helped more t…READ FULL ARTICLE
