LONDON (AP) — As gray seals go, Sheba is grayer than most.
The grand dame of the Cornish Seal Sanctuary is being celebrated Saturday for her 50th birthday, far surpassing the lifespan of a seal in the wild and possibly being the oldest in captivity.
“Reaching 50 is a huge milestone, not just for Sheba but for everyone here who has been part of her journey," said Tamara Cooper, curator at the facility in southwest England.
Things weren't looking bright for the young pup when she was rescued from a Cornwall beach in September 1974.
Ken Jones found Sheba with a head injury and nasty eye infection and took her home where he and his wife, Mary, rehabilitated seals in a pool.
As Sheba grew up, so did the rescue operation, moving from Jones' backyard to the Helford River in the village of Gweek and expanding to rehabilitate over 70 seal pups a year.
Sheba’s condition, including loss of vision, prevented her return to the sea and she’s now outlasted all of the other creatures who have come and gone, making her a favorite fixture at the facility.
Sheba’s longevity is attributed to the care she’s received and advances in veterinary medicine.
Seals typically survive 25 to 30 years in the wild, Cooper said. Females in captivity can live to 40 while males live to about 30.
Spook, a male gray seal born at the New York Aquarium in 1965, had been believed to be the oldest seal in captivity when he died weeks shy of his 45th birthday in 2010.
While Sheba's well-known and well-liked by the public and her handlers, she's not the most cooperative creature.
When she was raised by Jones, his focus was on rescue, rehabilitation and release, said Heather Green, an animal care specialist. There was no training for the animals that stayed behind until more recent years.
She has been reluctant to learn new tricks, such as being rolled over for inspections of her belly, flippers, tails and teeth. When it comes to receiving drops for her milky eyes, she does well some days while on others she waddles her mottled-fur frame away and splashes back into the pool.
“She's a bit stubborn," Green said. “She’d been so used to just being fed and not having to work for her fish that even now she still protests slightly. If we ask her to do any behavior or something, it’s all on her own sweet time and she’ll definitely let you know if she’s up for training or not.”
The public has been invited to her so-called seal-abration, where she'll be sung “Happy Birthday” and presented with a specially made ice caked topped with the number 50 and mackerel and herring.
“She’ll eat any fish,” Green said. “She’s not particularly fussy.”
In this undated image made available by Cornish Seal Sanctuary shows Sheba the seal at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, south west England. (Barry Williams/Cornish Seal Sanctuary via AP)
In this image taken in Sept. 2023 and made available by Cornish Seal Sanctuary shows Sheba the seal on her 49th birthday at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, south west England. (Barry Williams/Cornish Seal Sanctuary via AP)
In this undated image made available by Cornish Seal Sanctuary shows Sheba the seal at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, south west England. (Barry Williams/Cornish Seal Sanctuary via AP)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A New Zealand pilot held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region was freed by separatist rebels, Indonesian authorities said Saturday.
Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a 38-year-old pilot from Christchurch, was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air when he was abducted by rebels from a remote airport on Feb. 7, 2023.
He was handed over early Saturday to the Cartenz Peace Taskforce, the joint security force set up by the Indonesian government to deal with separatist groups in Papua, after he was allowed to walk free, said the taskforce spokesperson Bayu Suseno.
“We managed to pick him up in good health” in the Yuguru village of Nduga district, Suseno said, adding that Mehrtens was flown to the mining town Timika for further health checks, including psychological examination.
Rebels have used violence to try to achieve independence as the security situation deteriorates in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua, a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 under a United Nations-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region. Conflict spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.
Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, initially said the rebels would not release Mehrtens unless Indonesia’s government allows Papua to become a sovereign country.
Then on Tuesday, leaders of the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement known as TPNPB, issued a proposal for freeing Mehrtens that outlined terms including news media involvement in his release.
Suseno said that Mehrtens’ release was the result of hard work from a small task force team that had been communicating with the separatists led by Kogoya through the local church and community leaders, as well as youth figures.
“This is incredibly good news,” said Suseno in a video statement. “Effort to free the pilot by soft approach resulted in a hostage release without any casualties both from security forces, civilians or the pilot himself.”
Television news showed an emaciated, long-haired Mehrtens, wearing a dark-green shirt and black shorts, sitting in a room surrounded by police officers and local figures. He sobbed while talking to his family via video and an officer tried to calm him down by patting his back.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed Mehrtens’ release after 592 days in captivity.
“We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Phillip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to talk with his family,” Peters said in a written statement Saturday. “This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.”
Peters said a wide range of New Zealand government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities and others to secure the release for the past 19 1/2 months. Officials were also supporting Mehrtens’ family, Peters said.
Many news outlets showed “cooperation and restraint” in reporting the story, he added.
“The case has taken a toll on the Mehrtens family, who have asked for privacy,” Peters said. “We ask media outlets to respect their wishes and therefore we have no further comment at this stage.”
New Zealand news outlets reported during Mehrtens’ captivity that he was one of a number of expatriate pilots employed by Susi Air and in recent years lived in Bali with his family.
“We’ve got him free,” Peters told reporters Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. The development was an “enormous relief," he said.
Mehrtens was in Timika, Papua, Peters said, but would travel to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, “very, very soon to be reunited with his family.”
Peters had not spoken to Mehrtens since his release. The news was “one of the better stories I’ve had” in his 45 years as a lawmaker, the three-time foreign minister added.
He declined to give details about how the pilot was freed. It was a “tricky” environment and building trust had been the most difficult aspect, Peters said.
“It was quite nerve-wracking, holding our nerve and not getting too carried away, not doing anything that might imperil the chances,” he said. “Because there was always a concern of ours that we might not succeed.”
Indonesia President Joko Widodo congratulated the military and police who helped free the pilot by prioritizing persuasion and safety.
“This was through a very long negotiation process and our patience not to do it repressively," Widodo said.
An Air Force plane will take Mehrtens to Jakarta on Saturday afternoon for a reunion with his family, said Suseno, the taskforce spokesperson.
In April 2023, armed separatists attacked Indonesian troops who were deployed to rescue Mehrtens, killing at least six soldiers.
In August, gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, after it landed in Alama, a remote village in the Mimika district of Central Papua province. No one has claimed responsibility for that attack, and the rebels and Indonesian authorities have blamed each other.
In 1996, the Free Papua Movement abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two kidnapped Indonesians were killed by their abductors. The remaining hostages were freed within five months.
Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
This story has been updated with the correct spelling of the pilot's first name. It's Phillip, not Philip.
FILE - Police guard a hospital where workers threatened by Papuan rebels were brought for medical examinations in Mimika, Papua province, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. Security forces evacuated the workers from an area where they were searching for a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by separatist rebels of the West Papua Liberation Army. (AP Photo/Saldi Hermanto, File)
FILE - New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters comments during an interview with The Associated Press in his parliamentary office in the capital, Wellington, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Tantrum, File)
In this photo released by Cartenz Peace Task Force (Satgas Damai Cartenz) of the Indonesian security forces, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, left, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region, sits with police officers after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Satgas Damai Cartenz via AP)
In this photo released by Cartenz Peace Task Force (Satgas Damai Cartenz) of the Indonesian security forces, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region, sits after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Satgas Damai Cartenz via AP)
In this photo released by Cartenz Peace Task Force (Satgas Damai Cartenz) of the Indonesian security forces, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, left, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region, sits with a police officers after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Satgas Damai Cartenz via AP)
