Seal Entanglement Rescues

[JohnC6]

I just came across these videos. Five years ago, one man started to catch the seals at Pelican Point,Nabia and cut away the fishing gear from them. He now has six volunteers and much better gear to do the job thanks to Youtube and TikTok views donations. This first video is from last year on a day when they helped 34 seals. Looks like you need to be fit to do this. The second video is of a particular seal they'd tried a few times to catch but it managed to get back into the sea, in this video they caught him. It's heartening to know there are people dedicated to this sort of thing.

Who they are. https://english.news.cn/africa/20221030/074121a549784043af34766719836aa4/c.html

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6ZsXf0EGEA

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljBnqgHJmoM

 

[lindsay]

Thanks for sharing. I've been to that place, it's quite amazing. Hats off to those guys for doing an incredible job. We have a bunch of people here in Dundrum, NI, the Coastal Rowing Club, who collect masses of floating garbage from fishing regularly, and I've no doubt the nearby seal colony is affected by it. I see lots of things on the mudflats at low tide - net, rope, even plastic crates that have gone overboard from boats I guess.

 

[JohnC6]

Thanks for sharing. I've been to that place, it's quite amazing. Hats off to those guys for doing an incredible job. We have a bunch of people here in Dundrum, NI, the Coastal Rowing Club, who collect masses of floating garbage from fishing regularly, and I've no doubt the nearby seal colony is affected by it. I see lots of things on the mudflats at low tide - net, rope, even plastic crates that have gone overboard from boats I guess.

Glad you enjoyed it, Lindsay. I did wonder if they should have had a waterproof antiseptic spray for the wounds. I've seen rescuers use it in similar videos. Maybe the salt water was enough. One of the seals had about half of one flipper severed caused by the rope cutting into it and thought that maybe that one should have gone to a rehab centre,assuming there was one not too far away. There usually is near locations like that.

When we went on holiday to Poldhu Cove, Cornwall, twice a year, for a long time, I used to go down to the beach every day and pick up litter...cans, plastic cups, bottles etc but also that blue fisherman's rope and the orange rope,too and thin fishing line. I was made an 'honorary Cornishman" by a local..Lol. I actually prefer to do things like this on my own rather than in a group so I do the same round here at home. I don't really like people organising me.

A funny story. One day I had a bin liner full of rubbish I'd collected off Poldhu Cove beach and saw a group of school chidren..5-7 year olds sitting in a group with two teachers. I asked if it would be ok to show the chidren what I'd collected and the teachers were delighted because that was the subject of the day for them and why they were there. It's funny how little 'uns sit looking up at you like you were an alien... Lol. Anyway, I did that and the teacher asked if I lived there so I told him no, I was on holiday . He told the children this and got them to give a round of applause. ..Lol. I mention this because it was the first and last time in my life..so far, I've had a round of applause for anything

 

[JohnC6]

If anyone's interested in seeing more rescues there's a lot of them available. I saw another one yesterday..(Youtube on our TV, so big screen...55") that was carried out at Pelican Cross,Namibia where there's a colony of 400,000 seals. The fishermen called the team as a couple of seals had hauled out onto the quayside where the trawlers were tied up. It's good that the fishermen call them.

"Ocean Conservation Namibia".