The new seal disentanglement team got some training this week, learning stealthy ways to try to cut the ropes and nets that seals get tangled in.
Cape Town, South Africa (14 April 2023) – The Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation works to protect our oceans by raising awareness and ensuring our ocean animals are safe. They also work within the harbour of the V&A Waterfront to care for the population of seals. This week, the Seal Disentanglement team got some training which they will use to help seals within the harbour.
The Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation runs the Marine Wildlife Management Programme at the V&A Waterfront. One of the core functions is seal disentanglement. They assist Cape fur seals that get caught in discarded fishing gear and items of plastic pollution.
The team is needed because seals often find themselves tangles up in nets and pieces of plastic. Sometimes, these seals will live with the pollution attached to their bodies for far too long. With this awesome team at hand, any time there is a seal in need, they work to save it. Even if it takes weeks to catch the clever seals.
Cape fur seals feed on shoaling fish, squid, octopus, sharks and rays, all of which sometimes find their way into the maze of the waterfront, making the area a great place for the seals to hang out.
Martine Viljoen joined the new team’s training session and shared some of the foundation’s insight into what they do.
“Our Marine Wildlife Management Programme’s new seal monitors practised valuable techniques for disentangling seals on the seal platform. These include swimming under the platform, holding their breaths, and extending their special disentangling tool through the slats. The monitors must do all this as quietly as possible, so they don’t scare the entangled seal back into the water.” – Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation
The important thing we can all do to prevent entanglements is pick up litter, ropes and fishing lines we find along the beaches of South Africa. Every little bit helps. You can support the TOA Education Foundation in other ways too. You can find out how here.
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