Pieterburen seal centre stays open for now after €1.3m raised
The Wadden Sea World Heritage Centre in Lauwersoog, known as the Pieterburen seal centre, will not file for bankruptcy for now after donations poured in over three weeks.
Werelderfgoedcentrum Waddenzee (WEC), the seal centre in Lauwersoog also known as Pieterburen, is postponing its bankruptcy filing for the time being. The board announced the decision on Friday evening. In three weeks, €1.3m was raised.
The board and the supervisory board had already put off the planned filing by a week the previous week. They have now postponed it further, so the centre can keep operating while it looks for a way forward.
In a press release, the WEC said: "This overwhelming support gives the WEC room to explore new options for the future." It added that society's support "remains indispensable" and that all its time and energy will go into finding a solution.
The municipality of Het Hogeland and the province of Groningen had earlier said they did not want to put more public money into the centre.
The WEC said an agreement with its creditors is a precondition for working on the future.
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WEC (Werelderfgoedcentrum Waddenzee)
The Wadden Sea World Heritage Centre is the organisation that runs the seal centre in Pieterburen, where injured, sick and orphaned seals are cared for and released back into the wild. Its name refers to the Dutch Wadden Sea, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the centre also works on visitor information and education about that area.