Subject: Last Endangered Cape Fur Seal Left On South Africa's Oldest Seal Colony - MCM Still Ignores The Issue
Date: February 21, 2008
----- Original Message -----
From: Seal Alert-SA
To: Pamela Yako
Cc: Daan Vreugdenhil ; jbell@ifaw.org ; fau@nspca.co.za ; clairebass@wspa.org.uk ; mark.glover@dial.pipex.com ; garyp@pprotect.org ; stoffelf@pprotect.org ; lawrenceM@pprotect.pwv.gov.za
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 1:35 AM
Subject: Last Endangered Cape Fur Seal Left On South Africa's Oldest Seal Colony - MCM Still Ignores The Issue
Dear Pam Yako, Director General Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism,
The eradication of seals from this colony 8 years in a row. Is the final straw. What should have been constructive like-minded thinking between the organizations Seal Alert, MCM and SPCA - has turned into yet another example of MCM could not care less with regard to seals. There is clearly no co-operation between MCM and ourselves. The Public Protectors findings in his report 51 tabled with your Ministry clearly states my complaints against MCM are justified. A decade of MCM refusing to grant Seal Alert-SA a rescue permit and the very latest banning our use of jetski's for seal patrols, whilst permitting tourists to hire jetski's in the same area. I could go on and on, and on.
A wasted excercise. Seal Alert-SA will continue to protect, conserve and rescue these endangered seals. We will have no further dealings with MCM.
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
Dear All Cape Fur Seal Supporters,
Last Endangered Cape
Fur Seal Left On South Africa's Oldest Seal Colony - MCM Still
Ignores The Issue
A lone endangered Cape fur seal remains
Finally, the only thing Seal Alert-SA and
MCM can agree on is that on the 12 February 2008, the last
remaining alive seal was seen on the Elands Bay seal colony.
South African government scientists claim
93% of the Cape fur seals live on the west coast of southern
Africa, and that their preferred breeding habitat is offshore
islands, and that no mainland seal colonies existed prior to
1940.
Islands off the Cape west coast, where hence the
Cape fur seals derived their name, occur along a narrow stretch of
300km of coastline. A total of 36 islands occur along 3000km off
the southern African coastline, 85% of these, occur within the
narrow strip of coast, known as the Cape west coast. Sealers
exterminated all these offshore seal colonies, causing government
and the United Nations to list Cape fur seals as an endangered
species in 1977, with its appendix II listing with the Convention
in Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
The largest island in this area (also the
largest island in southern Africa) still carries the name of Seal
Island, known as the world famous Robben Island (Robbe being the
Dutch word for seal), a protected Unesco World Heritage Site -
Extinct to the Cape fur seals.
99% of their former island habitat
equally remains extinct. Although the seal population has
recovered elsewhere, it has also, in the last 10
years declined 50%, not a single former seal island colony has
been re-colonised by the seals. Partly due to government
banning seals from their preferred endemic breeding habitat, and
partly to facilitate mass seal culls on the mainland.
With Seal Alert-SA prevented from doing Seal
Rescue officially or undertaking Patrols in these high security
areas or Marine Protected Areas (although we still do). Our task is
not easy.
Near
Elands Bay, a baby seal flipper bone dating back 5 million
years
Within this Cape west coast region, Professor Andy Smith, head of
the Archeological Department at the University of Cape Town,
discovered that the Khoi-San tribes that inhabited this region over
100 000 years ago prized the meat and fat of these seal pups, as
per his discoveries in a bushman cave overlooking the seal colony
at Elands Bay.
Making this seal colony, culturally and
our heritage, the oldest known Seal Colony for this species.
All this means absolutely nothing to MCM.
Seal Alert-SA attention was first drawn to
this colony in 2000. When a concerned member of the public
discovered over 26 shot seals (photographed them) and recovered
.22mm (rifle) shell casings lying amongst the recently shot seals.
She contacted Seal Alert-SA after attempting to have the
authorities investigate these criminal acts, only to be fobbed off
and ignored.
She made a sworn affidavit at the Police
Station and handed Seal Alert-SA the .22mm shell casings.
Marine and Coastal Management's official
response from the Department of Environment and
Tourism, 8 years later -
Did MCM contact Seal Alert-SA during its
"thorough investigation" to obtain any of its evidence gathered
over 8 years, of course not, prior to even visiting the colony it
was determined it was all o'natural. The biggest joke of their
'investigation' is their claim that all dead seals were yearling
pups.
This same concern for the protection and
conservation of our seals, was confirmed 4 years earlier, when Seal
Alert-SA attempted to obtain national exposure to this issue (after
it too was fobbed off by MCM), via a television program on SABC's
50/50 (a wildlife program), then Director General of MCM, Horst
Kleinschmidt, equally head of the International Whaling Commission
Conservation department, and who is now, an advisor and
board-member to Seashepherd Conservation Society, stated,
"Seals are not
endangered. But if they were endangered, we would employ a totally
different regime of looking after them".
This
is what I described whilst being filmed at the seal colony for this
program, "And wherever
we’re walking we are just finding dead bodies in every pool. Three
seals dead in a pool. Another pup, another female, another bull.
The carnage of the death just doesn’t stop
here".
Attempting to get
further help, Seal Alert-SA approached the International Fund for
Animal Welfare here in South Africa, and spoke to its director
Jason Bell live on TV, whilst showing him the video evidence of the
seal carnage at Elands Bay, he was visually shocked, and said,
"We know that MCM
does not have the capacity to deal with this alone. In fact their
seal biologists, dedicated seal biologists, are not even working on
seals specifically anymore. And where they are they’re doing very
limited research. And that’s a serious capacity issue. And I think
the potential still exists. I don’t think this is a lost battle. I
think the potential does exist to take this issue forward in a
proactive way and to really make a difference at the end of the
day".
Seal Alert-SA, its supporters and a number of wildlife film-makers
have made an annual trip to this colony situated 270km away, in an
effort to document, record and save this species. Our most
internationally famous seal pup, Mumkin, seen on wildlife
television programs across the world, spanning from Korea to Europe
to the United States of America (loved by all), was rescued from
this colony. Mumkin, now in his 4th year and growing into a big
bull, still alive, and happily living off the facilities provided
by Seal Alert-SA at its Seal Centre base in Hout
Bay.
Not far from Elands Bay, the next seal colony is situated a little
further up the west coast at Lambert's Bay and on Penguin Island,
named after the seals were exterminated. Here in an effort to
uplift the fishing community from poverty, after fishing factories
turned into potatoe chip peeling factories. The department of
Environmental Affairs decided to pump millions into a tourist
viewing facility, in the belief that flocks of tourists wanted to
see gannets on this former penguin, former seal island (hopefully
as an added bonus the gannets would also produce more guano for
fertilizer), yet there was one problem, seals were attempting to
return to this colony. Solution hire a shooter, not a qualified
marksman, full time, to shot and shoo the seals away (using public
money).
Now that's Seal Protection and Conservation
for you, MCM style.
Whilst this is going on, on the opposite
side to Elands Bay, the next seal colony lies on a small group of
rocks known as Paternoster rocks (note not an island). Seal
Alert-SA flew over this colony in March 2004 and recorded the pic
above on the left. In December 2007, MCM issues a media appeal, not
on its website, not in the national media, but in a small community
paper, offering a reward for information on which fishermen shot
180 seals. The pic on the right above, shows far more than 180
seals were shot, in fact it looks like thousands, in fact the
entire colony has virtually been wiped out, at the peak of the seal
pupping and breeding time.
Round one, two and three, to MCM our seal
protectors. Three seal colonies side by side, exterminated.
Even though these two incidents occurred
side by side in the same month, even with MCM being forced to offer
a reward, the Elands Bay seal death's were all naturally yearlings
and natural deaths.
Back at Elands Bay, and the few days old baby pup referred to,
discovered strangled to death by members of the public, after this
incident went public in the local media. MCM dispatched one of its
inspectors to seek out and remove any evidence of this rope. Caught
in the act, as the pic on the right shows. To claim the baby pup
was strangled after death, is even more sick and
perverted.
The request by Seal Alert-SA and the SPCA to MCM to fence off this
seal colony and develop an tourist viewing facility to help protect
and promote the conservation of this species, has as per their
letter, officially fallen on deaf ears. Clearly MCM sees no
economic eco-tourism potential in these endangered Cape fur
seals.
Yet, readily sees economic potential
in tourists viewing seabirds with their development of the Penguin
Colony near Simonstown and the Gannet Colony at Lambert's Bay, even
developing gannet decoys to lure the gannets back. Hout Bay, on the
other end was privately developed and which MCM plays no part on
levying this seal viewing industry (worth R30 million
annually) , such is its disdain for seals - it wants no part
of their revenue income producing potential.
Whilst regulations exist for shark cage
diving and whale watching, no exists for seal viewing.
Yes, each year this ancient seal (at
Elands Bay) colony does collapse, not because of seals foraging,
but because man-kind has either killed them off or frightened them
away. Yet each year, cows return to have their pups as nature
intended, mate with bulls, and hope to be able to nurse their pups
over the coming 12 months, safely - unfortunately, thanks to
MCM, nothing will survive.
Perhaps the issue is simply, as MCM is
actually an ex-Sea Fisheries department, its only expertise is in
awarding exploitive fishing quotas. They know no other concept of
conservation. To them they simply estimate a population and then
award a quota. This makes good conservation sense to them. As
sealing has stopped in South Africa, in MCM's eyes the Cape fur
seals no longer have any economic potential, and therefore no
research or protection is needed, for these "fish stealing thieves"
or perhaps it is because government scientists are not aware that
this is an endangered species (clearly their ex-Director General
wasn't) or like their confused Namibian counter-parts, think
seals are game, to be hunted with clubs, rifle and bow&arrow,
large and baby small.
It is something even more pathetic, when
MCM continued to cull millions of baby seals, after the US banned
all imports in 1972 (for sound scientific reason and humaneness),
to have the EU Scientific Food & Safety Reviews describe how
inhumane sealing is, a practice MCM continued until 1990 - is
shocking
It is somewhat pathetic when MCM quotes
the Sea birds and Seal Protection Act dating back to 1973, as its
conservation legislation to protect Cape fur seals. When this
legislation was introduced to facilitate government handing over
its millions of baby seal clubbing activity to private individual
concessionaires, to continue their effective seal clubbing
protection policy, via their permit and quota system. Whilst
informing Seal Alert-SA under the Act it would be a criminal
offence to rescue seals.
One thing is certain, the future of Cape fur
seals lies in the hands of the international public and the leading
organization Seal Alert-SA. We clearly need to grow stronger and
larger to fund, where government ignores or acts irresponsibly, and
do what is required to conserve this amazing species of seal, found
nowhere else on earth.
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
27-21-790 8774