From: SealAlert-SA
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006
Subject: South Africa Baby Seal Centre, we have premises NOW!
Seal Alert-SA started back in 1999 in response to a single weanling seal pup found entangled and severely weak on the seashore in Hout Bay Harbour, a major fishing port.
What is so special about these creatures is that once you get to know them they completely change your life.
Being unqualified, untrained and unskilled, I had to start from scratch.
Not easy in southern Africa when its policies were sealing, and generally a good seal was seen as a dead seal, and above all seal rescue was resisted officially and frowned upon.
Things change. For me hundreds of seals have paid with their lives whilst they educated me bit by bit, step by step - teaching me slowly how to save over 5000, of all age groups in the process.
Driven away from the land (like the seals), I was forced to
develop rescue techniques in the wild (the sea), where I
would also treat them, remaining free to come and go at
will.
Rocks off the coastline become my seal centre's.
To accomplish this I became more seal than man, and I
needed a vast array of equipment to sustain me in the sea
under all conditions and cover a hostile and cold coastline
of over 2000 km.
Thanks to the incredible support of over 70 individuals and
organizations (you each know who you are).
Seal Alert-SA acquired rescue beach buggies, 4x4, jetski's,
rubber ducks,outboard motors, rafts, a 10 m sportfishermen
and finally a 6.5 m pup rehabilitation catamaran.
From a make-shift 2m by 2m old wooden raft to begin, we had
grown.
At over a 1000 rescues
a year, in an attempt to balance the 300 000 dying yearly
from sealing, island banning, disturbance, overfishing,
starvation, entanglement and gun-shots, single-handedly I
was struggling to cope with the rescues, transport,
treatment, cleaning and months long nursing.
Treating up to 50 seals at one time, with as many as 3
rescues in a single day - I had reached my maximum out-put,
with a 4am to 11pm day (with no break or day off)
was just simple not enough hours.
Whilst I was happy to
continue in the wild, using all my skill to drive towards
getting seals back their islands, from whence I could
equally do their rescue.
I had a problem with facilities for the demanding 2-4
hourly rehab and nursing of these baby clueless new-born
seal pups.
Without going into lengthy details, we almost got it right
in 2006 - Mumkin became the sole survivor.
Still we learnt, and it was clear that we still had one
clink in our seal rescue amour - and that was facilities to
treat the baby seals from age a few days to about three
months, where we could then transfer them to our floating
facilities and complete their 12 month rehab.
You will notice I have not
mentioned anyone's name's, it is because I have something
special in mind.
Like each of you, that have come to the fore when most
needed over the years, (saving many a seal's life in the
process), my ability as a one-man Seal-Man, to garner
volunteers, support and all the things that are needed -
become my biggest downfall.
Recently a chain of events took place, that I am pleased to
announce, ultimately lead to Seal Alert-SA acquiring its
first Seal Centre premises.
This was not due to my efforts, but again a group of people
(you know who you are), that made this possible. .
To the left of the
tall building (structure), the (blue wall) is a dirty,
run-down, roofless room, measuring 13 m by 5m. It is our
Seal Centre.
A place to store our equipment, rescue boats and a
protected secure area for treating the pups.
It is a place where
from Seal-Life can be nurtured, grown and developed, as
each seal season begins in mid-November.
With this new
beginning, my story ends.
I therefore extend an invitation to each one of you (to
make contact with my full group I post this to and of
course your own groups) to come together, in one big
family, and decide (if you so wish) what and how you would
like your seal centre to develop and grow.
I'm the Seal-Man, I do the rescues and treatment (and
contribute financially what I can), and naturally design
the facility.
The rest is yours to decide, most importantly how do we
tell your story, your involvement and above all how do we
thank each one of you.
One thing is certain, I would like to see each one of your
names on the wall, and a booklet about how you all got us
here.
Starting tomorrow, we
need to remove all the discarded rubbish inside, scrap the
walls, lay a smooth concrete floor, paint the walls,
install a roller door.
We need chest freezers, and an internal baby seal centre.
My plans are to use an area of 3m by 8m, inside this open
roofed room to construct, a 1m high, 3m wide, 8m long pool,
in the centre a sloping "tiny island", for the pups home
away from home.
If you would like to
contribute in anyway financially (to assist with the
building of this project), herewith is once again my
banking details.
Further plans involve the pier pictured (on the right),
constructing a cage/pool for larger seals, and a ramp into
the sea.
To the right of these pictures is our floating rafts and
catamaran.
May I at this time thank each one
of you, each part you played whether financial or awareness
or just in thought, were the pieces of the puzzle that made
it fit.
As the fishermen that rescued our latest baby seal
pup said, its changed his life, he feels better everyday
for what he did - Thank You, on behalf of these wonderful
seals.
To mail a donation directly to Seal
Alert-SA:
SEAL ALERT-SA
BOX 221
POSTNET
HOUT BAY
7872
SOUTH AFRICA
HEREWITH IS FURTHER DETAILS FOR BANK TRANSFERS:
ZAR is South AfricanRand
More
information to be able to send the money via
internet:
SEAL ALERT-SA ACC : 911 2201 321
BRANCH CODE : 632 005
SWIFT CODE : ABSAZAJJ
BANK : ABSA
SA NAT.CLEARING CODE
BIC: (SWIFT-CODE) ABSAZAJJ
Bank name : ABSA
Address : DELPHI ARCH OFFICE PARK, RAATS DRIVE, TABLE
VIEW
City/code : TABLE VIEW, 7439
Country : South Africa
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
021-790 8774
