From: sasealion@wam.co.za
Date: November 18, 2006 2:39:01 PM GMT+00:00
First Baby Seal of
2007 - Help, Exhausted !
With the Namibian
2006 seal clubbing season ended. Weanlings that fled and escaped
still pour into South Africa and its coastline, separated from
nursing mothers, these pups strand helpless, starving and unable to
fend for themselves. In what must surely be the biggest mass
cruelty of marine wildlife of its kind on the planet - Seal
Alert-SA, single-handed is struggling to cope with the
after-shock.
As many of you know we
started last season, with 8 new born baby seals. Sadly Mumkin
pictured above sponsored by Team Australia became the sole
survivor. After Namibian sealers between July - November, clubbed
their way through 85 000 of Mumkin's siblings, and then reported
900 a day were dying of starvation, and the public and media
reported hundreds of fleeing pups washing ashore and starving to
death. Seal Alert-SA, 1600 km away started getting reports, of
weanlings, clearly those still nursing having fled Namibia
stranding on our shores. Tens of thousands must have died on the
long journey down. Most pups washing ashore were dead. All told
perhaps as many as 90% of the pups born or over 200 000 baby
seals died in some cruel way over the past 12 months.
What Namibian sealers club to death
in a single morning between 5am and 10 am. Would take Seal
Alert-SA, 1.3 million hours and 3.6 million rand, to restore and
balance this destruction. Sadly, we only saved one, Mumkin - but we
were able this past month to save another 11 siblings, (same age
as Mumkin). All told, we have saved 12 babies from 2006
season, plus another 400 odd older seals.
With over 45 rescues this past
month, with a blind seal in backyard, seals in my boat, seals on my
raft and in the harbour. To say I am a little stressed and
exhausted is an understatement. Single-handedly feeding, cleaning,
preparing and treating 25 seals at the same time in 4 different
locations three times a day is a nightmare with 4am to 11pm, still
just not enough hours in the day. Fish purchases alone are running
at 500 rand every second day. Special mention must be given to
Tara, who initially responded to one weanling, then another, and
another, and another and thanks to her, little JanTara chased away
and separated from his mother at less than 5 days
old, from the exclusive Gannet Island colony at Lamberts Bay
(250km away), he was hurriedly fetched and brought to Hout Bay.
Thanks to South Africa's Department of Marine and Coastal
Management's culling/shooing operation on the island, Seal Alert-SA
is now loaded with the expense of this enjoyment to ban seals
unnaturally from islands.
As Seal Alert-SA enters its 7th season of baby pup rescues. Thanks
to all of you, the Spirit of Seal Supporter boat with funding
provided by Beauty With Cruelty and their Chair-person Beryl
Scott , has now been taken out of the water after the big
bulls sunk it. It needed some minor repairs and a new coat of
paint, unfortunately time has run out (with no repairs), as over
the past six weeks its use has proved invaluable instead in saving
many weanlings lives, who needed intensive care.
Swimming every 4 hours to the boat, like last year will kill me. So
I have to develop an alternative plan of treating these babies,
whilst treating all the other seals at the same time. So I need
your help ! Pictured above is the jetty upon where I work and do my
rescues. The two rafts are just to the right of the pic (out of
view). This year's plan, is to put the boat pictured above with its
trailer into the area pictured above and below the main pier.
Babies will be rehabbed in the boat like last year, which has its
own internal pool.
Due to this being a
public pier, on-lookers or vandals will disturb, hurt, stress,
harass and even kill the pups, when I am not there. Hence why I
worked in the water. I have two options, employ security guards
24-7 (very expensive option to protect the pups in the boat for
next 6 - 12 months) or construct a galvanised steel cage around the
whole boat to use as a lockable secure area for seal rescue and
rehab. I think the cage idea is best. Sadly I need funds. For a
crane to lift the boat, the steel cage construction, perhaps a
small wooden hut and if possible funding towards fish
purchases.
As I have my hands full,
I have asked Tara to please co-ordinate the running around to get
quotes and the hiring of a crane to lift the boat down. Herbert
Henrich of Seashepherd has agreed to administer the technical
aspects. Locally if any of you have any contacts who could
construct the cage and galvanise it - urgently, like yesterday, as
baby pup stranding season has started. Seals are already in my boat
parked outside, and with their constant cries neighbours are
already moaning.
The cage needs to be constructed of
fine diamond steel mess, measuring about (very rough will get exact
measurements to those who need it) of 3m by 8m by 4 m (height). The
longest I can hold out without it is two weeks, then I am in a
crisis.
first 2007 baby - JanTara
Tara contact number is 082 907
9414 and Herbert is 083 454 7236.
If any of you have spare funds
available and can help, please do. In addition, as I am going
through a ton of pilchards a month (bait), sponsorship or funding
for this would be very helpful. My bank details are
enclosed.
Sorry if this is quick, short or
rude, but running out of ideas.
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