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
