AN ARCTIC seal name Sahara, due to his tendancy to drift off to warmer climes, has been made to feel the UK is a cool place to live by ice machine distributor Hubbard Ice.
Hubbard Ice Systems has loaned an ice machine to a seal sanctuary in Cornwall to cool down an arctic hooded seal during the UK summer.

The plea from the National Seal Sanctuary to help keep the arctic seal cool, was answered by the UK distributor of Scotsman ice makers, which supplied a Scotsman MFN56 nugget ice machine capable of producing up to ½ tonne of ice, every day.

Sahara the seal, a shy male just under 2 years old, was originally found washed up in Morocco, thousands of miles from his home. The seal sanctuary nurtured the seal back to full health before releasing him into the wild, off the Orkney Coast.

However, within 8 weeks, Sahara washed up again, this time off the coast of Spain. As a result Sahara was deemed not fit for release back into the wild was given a permanent home in Cornwall.

At the sanctuary, the ice is shovelled directly from the machine to create an area for Sahara to relax on. The Scotsman MFN ice maker, which features a stainless steel evaporator, produces compact and therefore slow-melt nugget ice, which is ideal for keeping the young seal cooler for longer.

Chris Davis, commercial director at Hubbard Ice Systems, said 'When we heard of Sahara's plight we had to act quickly to ensure that he had the ice to keep cool over the warmest part of the summer. We've previously supplied ice machines to arctic exploration ships, but never one to a seal!'

Currently, the shy seal only comes out on the ice first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening when the viewing public aren't around.

Tamara Cooper, head of the animal care team at the national seal sanctuary said 'I guess there are not many people in the Arctic so you can't blame him for being wary.'

Despite the fact arctic seals live in a freezing climate, they are also partial to warmer water which explains why Sahara kept drifting southwards.

Cooper said 'Sahara's journey to Morocco could be the furthest south an Arctic seal has ever survived. As Sahara gets older our aim is to build him an arctic enclosure with cold and warm water pools'.