After the tragic events from the past few weeks, we are very grateful and relieved to report that the Namibian seal mass die off seems to have stopped. We do not see fresh carcasses at Pelican Point or Cape Cross, and we have received reports that the beaches south of Walvis Bay, all the way down to Luderitz, look the same. For the past two weeks, no statistically significant number of seals have died, and that is very good news.
In addition, we have spotted many healthy looking new born pups. They appear to be strong and fully developed, and their mothers will spend the next few weeks with them to protect them and nurse them, before they have to go off hunting for themselves. While they go hunting, they have to leave their pups behind in so called "creche colonies". Those groups of seal pups stay together with the mothers that are currently not hunting in the water and they will protect all pups in that colony from dangerous predators such as birds and jackals.
We still do not have many answers for the cause of the seal die off. Lab results for bacterial cultures have come back negative, the seal die off was not caused by bacterial infection. We will now have to wait for further investigation from the Ministry of Fisheries to confirm if fish availibility is to blame, as starvation remains the most likely factor. At least the die off has stopped and we get to enjoy the new lives at the seal colonies.
As so often, with the good comes the bad. Seal pups are too small to swim, and they are vulnerable to being trampled by bigger seals, and even a sea gull is a potentially fatal threat to a seal pup. In a nut shell: we cannot do disentanglements in groups with new born pups. The dangers outweigh the benefits. There are enough groups without pups where we can do our job, but entangled mothers are out of reach for us.
