Two seal pups who had the adventure of their short lives and lived to tell the tale are back home hopefully reunited with their moms, thanks to a team of dedicated marine rescue volunteers and professionals. The days-old pups were found exhausted on beaches west of Bushmans River Mouth, on Thursday afternoon, November 28 and Friday morning, November 29.
Marine rescue volunteer Verona Veltman wrote on a community WhatsApp group on Thursday night, “Our first sealpup arrived this afternoon at Kwaaihoek. The strong westerly yesterday coinciding with the spring high tide may have washed some pups off the island.”
It was a race to get the exhausted pup back to its birthplace, Black Rocks near Bird Island, where its mother would be waiting for its return… for now.
“They have about a seven-day window to be reunited, by boat, with their moms,” Veltman said. “If the pups don’t come home within that period, the moms go back to sea and the pups will starve.”
With the support of two holidaymakers, Jared Halbert and Jessie van der Riet, Bayworld-accredited agent Lionel Taylor took charge of the little one overnight, ready to take it to Bayworld in Gqeberha on Friday morning.
“[Halbert and Van der Riet] were a huge help in protecting the pup at Kwaaihoek yesterday from peeps and dogs and preventing it from returning to sea,” Veltman said.
The visiting couple were on hand again on Friday morning on the beach near Bushmans River Mouth to keep an eye on a second pup that had washed up.
“Just as Lionel was approaching Alexandria [en route to Coega] another report came in about a pup at Boknes,” Veltman said. “We dashed there but it was a yearling.”
Yearlings are considered big enough to look after themselves and don’t need to be returned to Black Rocks and their mothers.
“By that time [Hofmeyr] had made it to Boknes and loaded up the two Bushmans/ Kwaaihoek pups and rushed off to Coega port.
“Sjoe its been hectic!” Veltman wrote on the strandings WhatsApp group. “Two African penguins rescued yesterday as well!”
Ndlambe Municipality’s Community Protection Services, meanwhile, were called to manage a seal stranded at Flame Lily beach in Port Alfred.
“Animal Control Officer Anel Slabbert responded to several sightings of it,” said Ndlambe Municipality spokesperson TK Mtiki. “Unfortunately, a lot of people walk their dogs off leash along that stretch of beach and the seal would have been chased back into the sea.
“When our team did finally locate it, they judged it to be a yearling. That means it’s big enough to look after itself: it doesn’t need to be returned to its mother to survive.”
Why are the seals here?
Cape fur seals breed at a single location in Algoa Bay, at Black Rocks, in the Bird Island Group, Woody Cape. Some 400 to 800 pups are born every summer, from early November to mid January, says volunteer Veltman, whose knowledge is based on her work with with Bayworld curator and marine mammal biologist Dr Greg Hofmeyr on marine animal rescues.
“These pups cannot swim well until March. When rough seas and storm surges coincide with spring high tides, pups can be washed off the rocks of their low lying and narrow island,” Veltman said.
“As they are not good swimmers yet, many are swept out to sea and the survivors end up on our shoreline, typically between Woody Cape and Port Alfred. The majority come ashore at Cannon Rocks where first responders collect them.”
Speaking to Talk of the Town, Hofmeyr said the two pups found at Kwaaihoek and near Bushmans River Mouth were only days old.
“Black Rocks is only about 4 metres high,” Hofmeyr said. “[Thursday’s] gale-force winds probably washed them off the rocks. Also, the colony is a busy place and they could easily get knocked off the rocks. If the water’s calm, they can usually make their way across the water and back up on to the rocks; when the weather is rough, they may just get swept away, like these two.
“Their umbilical cords were still unhealed. At that age, they are completely naïve and 100% dependent on their mothers for the next 11 months.”
The good news is that once returned to Black Rocks, their mothers recognise them very quickly by their unique calls.
Hofmeyr was fortunate to be able to get a ride for himself and the two newborn pups with the Sanparks vessel. A chartered trip to Bird Island (or Black Rocks) and back costs round R10 000 – something Hofmeyr says neither he nor Bayworld can afford.
The alternative is hand-raising them – “and that’s very difficult with seals” – or euthanasing them.
Hofmeyr described delivering them back to the island and their mothers.
“We can’t go on to the island itself, because it’s breeding season and we don’t want to disturb the seals. So we take the boat as close as possible on the leeward side.”
On Friday afternoon, he first picked up the slightly bigger pup, lifted it and tossed it into the water of a sheltered pool close to the rock.
“That’s when you hold your breath,” Hofmeyr said.
But soon enough, it popped its head above the water, swam the short distance to the shore and clambered up on to Black Rocks. Both seals had been tagged by Hofmeyr and he watched the bright-green flipper tags make their way across the rocks, and the baby reunite with its mother.
“Then I threw the second one in.”
At first, it was a bit of a panic because an adult seal appeared in the water and the pup started swimming the wrong way. But soon enough it was also clambering up on to the rocks, to also be reunited with its mother.
“It’s a fantastic feeling when you see that,” Hofmeyr said.
The practice of returning the stranded babies to the island comes from research done in 2008, when a series of severe weather incidents saw around 400 seals washed ashore along the Sunshine Coast.
Hofmeyr wanted to know whether, if they were returned to their mothers, the pups would be recognised and taken back into the colony. So they tagged pups in order to observe the reunions.
“We followed those tagged pups and many of them survived,” Hofmeyr said.
Only trained and rabies-vaccinated people may approach or assist stranded marine animals
“Rabies has been found in seals on the Cape coastline,” said Hofmeyr. “For that reason, it is essential that you a) stay as far as possible from any seals on the shoreline and b) always keep your dogs on a leash when you walk on the beach.
“Our accredited strandings first responders have all been vaccinated against rabies, have received specialised training and have specialised equipment they use to retrieve and transport stranded animals.”
What to do if you see a stranded seal (or any marine animal)
- Do not chase them back to sea – they will probably drown from exhaustion.
- Do not crowd them or allow dogs or children (or any person) to approach them. They are easily spooked and will dash back to sea and the chance to catch them diminishes. Most importantly, Hofmeyr emphasises, rabies has been detected among the Cape fur seal population. Seals also have long, sharp teeth that can cause serious injuries. “Once a person or a dog starts showing symptoms of rabies, there is no cure: only vaccinated, trained people should be dealing with stranded animals.”
- Don’t feed them – they are not yet weaned from mother’s milk.
Please do call:
* Sunshine Coast marine life stranding first responders coordinator Verona Veltman 083 654 9976
* Ndlambe Municipality’s Animal Control Officer Anel Slabbert +27 (60) 983-5549
* Bayworld Stranding Hotline 071 724 2122
* Marine birds: SANCCOB: 041-583-1830 or 064 019 8936 (after hours emergency) or 063-942-4702
- Full list of contacts at nsri.org.za
- This article was first published in Talk of the Town, December 5, 2024. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
