GENOCIDE OF CAPE FUR SEALS
Unlimited vast deserts and an annual quota of 300 days of sunshine, is exactly what draws travellers to one of Africa's most intriguing destinations - Namibia. However, what these travellers do not get to see, is the second largest, and what the ex-director of IFAW-South Africa has called, the cruellest seal 'hunts' in the world. A 'hunt which will see tens of thousands of seal pups killed by clubbing, bow and arrow and by being stabbed in the chest. Many of these baby seals will still be suckling on their mothers when they are massacred, with milk pouring from their young mouths..........
(PHOTOS OF SEALS BEING CLUBBED, STABBED ETC HERE)
The
Cape Fur Seal, a 5 million old species, is a direct
ancestor of the Australian Fur seal. A long time ago
several swam all the way from South Africa to Australia
where they thrive today. Due to gross mismanagement and
vested interests within the Namibian Fisheries Ministry,
this species is rapidly heading to extinction. Australians
can put pressure on South Africa to stop this horrific cull
right now on a season that just started July 1, 2006.
CAPE
FUR SEAL GENOCIDE
1.
This year Namibian Fisheries Minister Abraham Iyambo has
increased seal quotas amounting to a 100% cull of baby
seals i.e. 85,000 (taking into account that there is a 30%
newborn death rate). In 2005 the quota was 65,000 yet one
of the two sealer concessionaires could only meet 80% of
the TAC killing every pup.
Leading South African Marine and Coastal Management
scientist and advisor to the Minister stated "There is no
way the sealers will reach their quota". Meanwhile sealers
have been petitioning the Namibian government for higher
quotas because otherwise many will be laid off and have to
return home without any income for the year.
The Cape fur seal population has already suffered mass
die-offs in 1994 and 1995 each resulting in 1/3 to ½ of the
population dying due to starvation. Namibia should have
ended sealing then.
In 2000 Namibia doubled its sealing quota to 60,000 and one
month after sealing season had ended 300,000 seals starved
to death. Once again, Namibia should have ended sealing.
Instead, the following year, because sealers had only met
50% of their TAC, the sealing season was extended so
younger seal babies could be slaughtered.
The current seal population is down 27% from 1993, yet the
quota is 68% more than the 1993 quota.
Yet the Minister claims: “The annual harvest of seals is in
line with the country’s laws and accepted international
conservation principles and practices and that its
management strategy was aimed at ensuring the sustainable
uses of the marine resource under the constitution.”
Chief Director of Research, Antarctic and Islands - Dr
Augustyn claims an "increased" growth across the board for
the Cape Fur Seal population from 1972 to 2004. Based on
his logic, as long as the seal population remains higher
than the first count in 1971 the seal population is
increasing and is of "no concern". There has in fact been
no overall increased growth, but in fact, a decline in the
total seal population since 1997. This is madness, because
it ignores all "scientific and conservation" trends over
the past few decades and most importantly it ignores trends
in the mainland sealing population.
Namibia is only entitled under its constitution to harvest
seals in a "sustainable manner" – this irresponsibly high
cull of baby seal pups is therefore illegal and the
minister should be brought before cabinet to answer why he
recommended this increase.
CORRUPTION
WITHIN NAMIBIAN FISHERIES
2. The sealing quota is divided between two concession
holders, one at Cape Cross (a nature reserve) and the other
at Wolf/Atlas Bay (diamond restricted area). Wolf/Atlas Bay
is where 60% of Namibian seals are killed.
One of the partners at Cape Cross Lodge, the only privately
owned land on this coast with a beachfront whose main
attraction is the world’s biggest mainland seal breeding
colony, is Namibian fisheries Marine Resource Director, Dr
Burger Oelofsen. Dr Oelofsen said in 2000 "We know they are
going to die, so why not harvest them? We cannot afford to
let them go to waste".
At the lodge sealers kill seals from 5am-10am then it’s
open to the public from 10am-5pm, July to November. They
make money from the people killing seals and money from the
seal-watching tourists (who have no idea what is going on).
Trophy hunters go in and kill seals with bows and arrows.
Isn’t this a conflict of interest? Instead of protecting
marine wildlife and adopting sustainable practices, the
Marine Resource Director chooses instead to round the
“worthless seals” up and kill them. What kind of marine
wildlife management is this?
NURSING SEAL PUPS ILLEGALLY KILLED
3. Namibia is the only country in the world that permits
the commercial slaughter of nursing seal pups. Even Canada,
Greenland, Norway and Russia ban it. In 1972 the US
introduced the US Marine Mammal Protection Act which banned
the import of seal skins from South Africa where nursing
seal pups were taken on grounds of cruelty. Over 1 million
nursing pups have been taken inhumanely since 1972 in
Wolf/Atlas Bay.
In addition, pregnant seals have been illegally killed.
ILLEGALLY
ISSUED SEALING PERMITS
4. According to the Seabirds and Seals Protection Act no 46
of 1973, all commercial sealing of this Marine Mammal has
occurred beyond the jurisdiction of the "acts" which end at
the "high-tide" mark and have occurred on privately owned
land, therefore making the awarding of these "seal
harvesting" permits illegal. All permits/rights should be
revoked immediately.
CRUELLEST
SEAL SLAUGHTER IN THE WORLD
5. The Namibian seal slaughter of 85,000 baby seals and
7,000 bulls is the 2nd
largest seal slaughter in the world and is also the
cruellest. After being separated from their mothers and
rounded up, the seals are clubbed over the head or have a
knife stuck in their helpless chests or hunted with bows
and arrows for trophies, many skinned alive.
In 2000 the sale of 42,000 pups ? 48,000? yielded $85,000
or less than $3 per seal. So much suffering for so little
economic benefit.
This horrific suffering comes on top of already being
starving. Starving seals crawl ashore too exhausted to move
where seagulls peck out their eyes. Then in addition they
get stabbed, clubbed and skinned alive. Some 500,000 -
700,000 seals are starving with 20-25% less blubber on
their bodies and ribs protruding.
COLLAPSE
OF FISH STOCKS DUE TO SEALING
6.
Fisheries blame seal for eating all the fish since there
have been no fish in the area for 3 years. Yet culling only
babies and adult males (the females have no commercial
value) means there are more breeding females therefore more
pups to cull the next year. The problem is caused by
sealing, not by the seals who have existed harmoniously
with the fish in the sea for 5 million years.
The Namibian government has not managed fisheries
sustainably and, like Canada, is now blaming the seals. Yet
after South Africa stopped sealing in 1990 at its only
mainland colony, the seal population - the largest mainland
colony in the world - actually declined and has seen no
further growth. Cape Cross in Namibia has become the
largest seal colony in the world - the direct result of
sealing.
The following graph shows offshore colonies (yellow)
compared to mainland colonies (green). The mainland
colonies have been heavily sealed yet their seal population
far exceeds that of offshore islands where there is no
sealing. Clearly, the collapse of fish stocks is caused by
sealing, not seals who eat fish. No matter how many fish
seals eat, they give back to the ecosystem as they have for
millions of years.
SEAL
EXPORTS EXCEED QUOTAS
7. From 1992 – 2002, Namibia exceeded its official TAC seal
quota in gross exports of fur skins by 84,479 (26% over).
It was in this period that the Namibian seal population
fell 50% from 922,396 to 476,074.
At the 20th Meeting of the CITES Animals Review Committee
meeting in Johannesburg 2004 a report prepared by TRAFFIC
and the IUCN/SSC Wildlife Trade Program revealed that
Namibia exported 37,019 skins in 1995 (117% over quota),
42,611 skins in 1996 (109% over quota), 2,124 skins in 1999
and 48,686 skins in 2000 (115% over quota).
In 2002 Namibia doubled its seal skin exports to over
112,000 skins though the annual quota was 60,000. As
Namibia has not notified the CITES Secretariat of this
export quota, perhaps CITES should select this species for
a Review of Significant Trade since sealers are not
following TACs.
SEAL
POLICY BETWEEN S. AFRICA AND NAMIBIA
8. Though South Africa stopped killing the Cape Fur seals
in 1990, Namibia didn’t. A total of 88% of this species are
found on the Namibian mainland. There needs to be
implemented a unified seal policy so the species doesn’t go
extinct. At the South African Commission on Sealing in
1990, the committee recommended that the Cape fur seals
should be managed as one population, as there is no
biological evidence to distinguish between the seals who
migrate between South Africa and Namibia. These seals are
red listed with CITES appendix 2.
BANNED
FROM BREEDING ISLANDS
9.
For 5 million years Cape Fur seals thrived on 23 island
colonies especially Robben Is. Since 1940 seals have been
banned from their natural breeding islands causing
unnatural coastal breeding so 75% (88%?) of the seals are
on the mainland which has no protection under the
Seabirds and Seals Protection Act no 46 of 1973
because the seals are only protected up to the high-tide
area.
Banning seals from islands and displacing them to mainlands
(80 times more space) in the oldest desert and least
populated country in the world, has been one of the
greatest mismanagement blunders of marine wildlife this
past century. The seal cull in Namibia has been a complete
scientific and management failure.
Far from being a sustainable utilization of a resource, it
has created an imbalance in the breeding population leading
to a population explosion that has cost the fishing
industry (formerly one of the world’s most productive
fisheries) over half a million tons fish annually exceeding
N$30 billion (AUD$6.5 billion) losses in the last 16 years.
Income derived from seal culls = 0.02% of fishery income.
Of course the reason for driving the seals to the mainland
was so they could be conveniently killed outside the
jurisdiction of the law that states that the commercial
cull of seals on offshore islands is a “non-sustainable
utilization of a resource” as it directly causes colony
extinction. Therefore under the constitutions of both South
Africa and Namibia, sealing on offshore islands would not
be permitted.
SEAL
MEAT FIT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION?
10. Because there is little demand for illegally killed
seal pups the Minister is encouraging people to eat seal
meat and even supplying recipes. There are known serious
health risks associated with eating seal meat including
viruses, pox, hepatitis, influenza, morbillivirus,
salmonella, mycobacteriosis, staphylococcus, clostridial,
mycotic, candidiasis, sarcocystis, toxoplasma, lung,
stomach, heart, and hook worms). Jackals and Hyenas preying
on mainland sealing colonies have tested positive for or
carriers of rabies and canine distemper virus. It just so
happens that one of the side effects of distemper is
starvation….
According to the Fishing Industry Handbook Namibia Venison
& Marine Exporters which produces carcass, meal, seal
oil, seal skins and seal skin products to the livestock,
pet food and health food industry in South Africa is
jeopardising the health of livestock, pets and humans since
no health certificate is required. Is the Minister willing
to risk an outbreak similar to "bird-flu" or in this case,
"seal-flu", for the sake of two concessionaires who employ
part-time a few unskilled workers, whose culling at best
benefits Namibian fishery by only 0.02%?
Since this seal/fish meal has already been exported to S.
Africa for livestock feed, there could already be risks to
human health since no health certificate is required.
Fishery Ministers urging citizens to develop a taste for
seal meat is grossly irresponsible.
IFAW
NO FRIEND OF SEALS IN NAMIBIA
11. In 1999 Dr BJ Van Zyl, Chief Biologist Namibian
Fisheries, the Namibian Minister offered the International
Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) who raises $90 million
annually, the opportunity to "buy-out" the two sealing
rights holders, which was rejected by IFAW. See p.4,
http://www.iwmc.org/sustain/2ndSymposium/issues/issues-14-4.htm
In 1991 the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries agreed to
consider a moratorium on sealing if IFAW could demonstrate
that seal watching is a better source of revenue than
sealing; and if IFAW offered financial assistance for the
scientific study of seals in Namibia. Again they refused.
What exactly is IFAW doing to help the seals? Why haven’t
they taken legal action to stop Namibia proceed against its
own constitition? Or gone to court claiming 3 million seals
have been killed illegally based on the non-jurisdiction of
the permits? Or campaigned to return seals to their
historic breeding islands? Or shown that sealing causes
population explosion, weakens seal populations and
collapses fish stocks?
Furthermore, IFAW has been involved in working with the
S.African government to illegally kill seals instead of
protecting them. (short para here?)
MORE
CONSTITUTIONAL INFRINGEMENTS
12. The Cape fur seal population is one species of seal
that occurs between South Africa, Namibia and Angola -
Namibia's unlawful harvest of nursing protected baby seal
pups, is therefore an infringement on the constitutional
rights of South Africans under their Constitution.
LEGAL
BIAS AGAINST SEALS IN NAMIBIA
13. In 2001, when the new regulations for the Exploitation
of Marine Resources was gazetted, Cape fur seals were the
only marine protected species permitted to be harvested by
Namibia:
“A person may not harvest any species of marine
mammal
other than the Cape Fur Seal,
kill, disturb or main any penguin, petrel, shearwater,
pelican, gannet, cormorant, duck, goose, gull or tern, or
the eggs of any of these marine resources, or kill or maim
any great white shark or turtle”.
Clearly this is not complying with the
Seabirds and Seals Protection Act no 46 of 1973.
IS
ANYONE HELPING CAPE FUR SEALS?
14. Seal Alert-SA is the only organization who is actively
working to help the Cape Fur Seals. Francois Hugo can be
contacted at
saselion@wam.co.za
or 27-21-790-8774.
Francois
Hugo of Seal Alert-SA therefore urges not only the
authorities in Namibia, but the Ministers in South Africa
and the general public - to call for an immediate end to
the Namibian Seal Cull and in addition, the resignation of
the Minister, before his irresponsible behaviour plunges
this region into another health crisis and the Cape Fur
seals go extinct.
SUMMARY
1. Namibia is commiting genocide on the Cape Fur Seal. 100%
of all pups born this year (85,000) will be clubbed,
stabbed and skinned - most of them are already suffering
from starvation since there are no fish in the sea.
2. There are a number of breaches of law, i.e.
a) killing nursing and pregnant seals
-
no other country in the world allows this
b) breaking the Namibian Constitution by killing seals
unsustainably,
c) infringing on constitutional rights of South Africa and
Angola, who also manage these migrating seals
d) issuing sealing permits beyond the high-tide mark
3. Namibian Fishery Dept is blaming seals for its own
mismanagement of the fishery industry and its own over
fishing policies leading to the collapse of fish stocks.
4. There is a conflict of interest where the Marine
Resource Director is directly benefiting financially from
the seal slaughter.
5. The slaughter is grossly inhumane.
6. The Minister of Fisheries is jeopardising the health of
humans, pets and livestock by encouraging the consumption
of diseased and contaminated seal meat.
7. The Minister of Fisheries, Abraham Iyambo, must
therefore resign.
8. The International Fund for Animal Welfare is involved in
a government cover-up of the treatment of seals in South
Africa, has refused two offers to buy out the sealing
concession holders in 1991 and 1999 and has failed to used
millions of dollars donated by members worldwide to help
the Cape Fur Seal.
9. Unless the Namibian Seal Cull is stopped, the
consequence will be global outrage followed by a boycott on
Namibian tourism and products of commerce.
10. The only organization doing anything to protect this
species is SealAlert-SA. Francois Hugo can be contacted in
South Africa on 27-21-790-8774 (8 hrs behind east coast
Australia),
email sasealion@wam.co.za.
