From: sasealion@wam.co.za
Date: September 18, 2006
Dear All Cape fur Seal Supporters,
Cape Town's Baby Seal Shame
Perhaps it might interest you to see reality turned into scientific figures. Many of you last year rallied around and helped with funding, to help Seal Alert-SA try and develop a mass baby seal rescue and rehabilitation plan. Your support was tremendous. Although only one out of the eight pups survived, the lessons learned were invaluable.
We have nine offshore seal colonies in South Africa stretching over 3000 km of coastline. One of these depicted below, is where we tried to save four last year. Most of the baby pups, found washed ashore are drowned, very few are found alive. The officially policy is to remove the alive pups and have them put down - killed. The already dead ones are removed by the Cape Town City Cleansing refuse removal department and dumped on municipal rubbish dumps.
This is an annual event, that has taken place
for decades. Seal Alert-SA calls it an unfair 'Natural Cull' of
these protected species. With so many baby seal pups being
guarantied to drown, South Africa might as well resume sealing - as
it clearly does not care about its seals.
These figures were taken from a recent scientific paper concerning
the increase of white sharks in False Bay on members of the
public.
For the past decade an average of 12 000 - 14
000 baby seals are born on the 2ha rock in False Bay. Densities are
the highest in South Africa, where one pup (7kg), one cow (70kg),
one bull (250kg) and one juvenile seal (100kg) are expected to
survive for 50% of the lives over the next 12 months in one
sqm.
The 9 105 that washed ashore (75%) in less than
a month, do not include the ones that sank to the bottom or were
eaten by 150 - 1 300 white sharks.
If an organization like Seal Alert-SA would
seriously attempt to try and address and save and rehabilitate
these baby victims. It would require somewhere in the region of 90
million rand or USD 13 million, each and every year - just for this
one colony alone, for eternity.
It would require a daily budget to rescue and
save 500 seals washing ashore, everyday of 5 million rand a
day.
For the past few decades, a very simple
solution, has existed that will cost nothing. Not a single cent.
The solution ! is to allow these seals to have their babies on the
500 ha island nearby, a seal protected island since 1972, a Unesco
World Heritage Site since 1999, and island named by the early Dutch
explorers as Robbe (Seal) or as it is known today, Robben
Island.
For five years Seal Alert-SA has pleaded with
everybody, the Public, the Media, Government Officials, Scientists
and even the Public Protector. We even started an international
on-line petition, http://www.petitiononline.com/RobbenSA/petition.html,
and 2 353 have since signed.
We even got Marine and Coastal Management and their top scientist
to point where the seals could be allowed to breed. In two months
time another, 9 000 baby seal pups will wash off, drown, strand and
be dumped.
Seal Alert-SA cannot appeal for funds, when
there is a cost free alternative. It cannot ask anybody more than
it has asked already, even sending a request to the UN and South
Africa's ruling political party the ANC executive.
So all it can do is wait and watch, how the citizens
of Cape Town, could not care less - and witness once again the
death of 9 000 protected baby Cape fur seals.
We have nine such offshore seal colonies, where the
seals are unnaturally restricted to just 2%. The more we talk - the
less people listen.
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA