A stranding includes any incidents that do not involve:

live, free-swimming, healthy cetaceans or seals

or

live, healthy seals hauled out on beaches.

A stranding can include live cetaceans out of the water on a beach, an injured or ill seal on a beach or a dead or entangled cetacean or seal at sea or on a beach.

Seals temporarily haul out on land so it is not unusual to find a seal on a beach. Seals come ashore to rest, bathe in the sun and must come ashore to have their pups. Mothers periodically leave their pups alone on the beach so they can feed and replenish their strength so it isimportant that pups are not approached, handled or moved.

It is thus very important to determine if a seal is healthy (i.e. plump, alert) or, if it is a pup alone on a beach, that mom will not come back (can take 24-48 hours). This must be done before anyone approaches or interacts with the animal.