Four months into 2021, and we have rescued 76 seals from entanglement. We are ahead of last year's rescue numbers. We do not know if there are more seal entanglements, or if we have simply gotten better at spotting them. We see more and more rubbish on the beaches every day, and we assume it looks exactly the same under water. We are doing the best we can, we have even explored sending out two rescue teams led by Naude and Antoine instead of just one. We will not be out of work any time soon. Antoine slotted right back into his position and we cannot even remember that he was gone for the past 6 months.
Kerstin is working on a comparison between entanglements from 2020 and 2021, it will be very interesting to see if we encounter the same entanglements at the same spot and time of the year. Once we have that data, we can look into prevention, cleanups and target education campaigns.
Entanglements are our main focus right now, but only one of the dangers marine mammals face. We had a very rare Blue Whale sighting in Walvis Bay, but unfortunately nothing could be done for this majestic animal. A first assessment of the situation suggest that this particular whale was struck by a ship. We have seen seals with injuries from ship strikes before, but the shear size of this injured Blue Whale visualises that no animal is safe in the ocean. The Namibian Dolphin Project is taking genetic samples and measurements to hopefully determine where the animal came from.
