Subject: 'They' Know We Care !
Date: February 28, 2008
Dear All Cape Fur Seal Supporters,
It has always bothered me, that these large multi-million
dollar international organizations all campaign to Save
Seals, but none actually do, physically. To me if you claim
you Save Seals and raise millions for that purpose, then
this is physically what you should do. For this you need
somesort of rescue facility. Whilst campaigning,
protesting, letter writing and photographing seals being
killed is all very well and great awareness, it still does
not actually save a single seals life. I have always
wondered why this is? Yes, physically rescuing a wild
seal's life is difficult and open to huge criticism, and of
course it costs thousands, but can you really seperate one
from the other. I know I cant. Perhaps the reason is that
some seal supporters prefer to donate small
feel-me-good donations, and for their $25 donation,
expect little more than a $25 service in return, less admin
costs, salaries and fund raising costs. Knowing this, these
international organizations change the concept of
physically saving a seal's life to campaigning to save its
life, maybe. A far cheaper alternative. Added together in
their millions makes a nice sizeable fund in the bank.
Seal Alert-SA on the otherhand is
tremendously proud of its seal supporters or partners as I
prefer. Although small in number, they are really
concerned about the seals and do what is required. As such
we have together been able to move mountains and save
seals. In the true sense of the word, thousands.
One such supporter or partner is
Jose and Marius, whose organization
www.actionagainstpoisoning.com/page154/page154.html
deals with
poisoning of animals, yet whenever the seals needed it,
they were always more than there to help financially and
in othermeans. I have longed looked for a special seal
to name in their honour, and this is how their story
begins, and will unfold over the next 12
months ....
'They' Know
We Care !
To prove why
we need to rescue them, because 'They' Know We Care ! This
particular little endangered baby seal pup was no doubt
born with all his other siblings on a small awash rock seal
colony off Hout Bay, somewhere around 26th November and
15th December. He was lucky his mom had not chosen to have
him in Namibia, for he would surely have not seen the age
of his first year, either starving to death, torn apart by
jackals to being surrounded and clubbed to death. For the
past 75 days this pup sat obediently and waited the return
of his foraging mom and his rich milk. This small rock was
his sanctuary, his entire world, his country. But for days
his mom did not usually return. He waited and waited, and
waited. Growing very, very hungry.
He had two choices. He could wait and slowly starve to
death or he could attempt to locate his mom. Who unknown to
him was likely dead, shot by a greedy fisherman. Which way
should he go, for there was not another seal colony for at
least 100km in either direction, and inbetween which rock
on this coastline should he search. From his perspective.
This is what he faced.
A world so vast and open that stretched for miles as far as
his little round eyes could see. An immense ocean of
possibilities or disappointments or death.
Yet, in all this immense vastness of so-called protected
waters, this little pup had one further option. He could go
to a spot he had never been been to, but had heard about. A
place so small it measured 6m by 6m. There he had been
told, when all else fails, when things are really looking
grim. There are people who really, really care. So he set
off, braving white sharks that gobble you up in one bite,
cold seas, huge pounding waves and hope.
When he exactly arrived on the
Seal Alert-SA raft, I do not know. It might have been days
or a few hours. I have not swum out to the raft, these past
few days, as I was re-occupied with nursing his 5 other
siblings, each from a different seal colony, each with a
similar story days into their life. When rescuing baby
seals, you normally have a window of rescue to save their
fluffy lives of just a month, the month within birth. After
that, it is seldom you will ever see a baby pup
needing rescue until the following year.
As I swam to the rafts and
proceeded to check them, I noticed by chance this little
bundle of fur curled up fast asleep. Immediately I could
see this was a baby (non-fish eating) pup who could only
survive on suckling. If I frightened him or he jumped into
the water, this would surely cost him his life. How he
navigated this long cold swim, I will never know. So how do
I approach him. I re-entered the water, swam around to the
front of the raft where he lay to get a closer look. At
that moment another older pup, last year's rescue of pups
fleeing Namibian sealers approached this baby, and the baby
responding, crying for some milk. Snout to snout. Up
from the water I stretched out my hand, and this little
baby pup, stared down on me in confusion. I proceeded to
rub his neck softly, and in a moment he started calling
after me as his long lost mom.
Before I could even think, how I would
swim with this wild baby pup, back to the pier, climb up
and walk down to the centre. He was up on all four
flippers, and plunged straight into my arms off the raft.
Wild as a timid wild seal can be, this baby pup,
immediately knew something and that this alien creature
(this enemy) was this thing other seals had told him about,
and he was going for it.
On
the left of pics, JM
I have named him JM (After Jose and Marius good seal
partners), his belly is now full, and he is exhausted and
has slept constantly for two days now, with the other 5
siblings, nudging him every so often just to check if he is
still alive and wanting him to recover soon so that they
can all play.
This is why we need to do seal rescue,
and this is why Seal Alert-SA has floating facilities.
Campaigns and letter writing are all very good, but we also
need to be able to let these seals speak and find us. What
would have happened to JM, if no facility existed?
Over the past decade, I have had many
affirmations of this 'seal talk'. Cows coming to give
birth, shot and coming to die in my arms, entangled seals
and starving seals. But, knowing these babies behaviour
well, and how clueless they are at this age. That the
chances of him surviving this swim, let alone head in a
particular direction, is near to impossible, yet here he
is. He could have hauled out anywhere, on any rock, in any
direction. Even within the harbour itself, yet he found it,
and instead of fleeing in terror, jumped straight into my
arms.
To all of you, thank you for making this
work possible, especially Jose and Marius.
For the Seals
Francois Hugo Seal Alert-SA
link to
sealmancam
