----- Original Message -----
From: SealAlert-SA
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2006 8:19 PM
Subject: South Africa Baby Seal Centre, we have premises NOW!
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