Our seal rescue count is very similar to last year, but our shark rescue count is definitely up! 

Sharks aren't our usual target species, but we never turn down an opportunity to help animals. When Katja spotted a beached, but alive shark at the Walvis Bay lagoon at 6am in the morning during one of her training runs for the Hamburg Marathon this April, she quickly notified the OCN team to come and grab the animal to take him to safety.
What had happened? Due to an algae bloom, the oxygen levels in the lagoon drop very low and many animals suffocate. It is a rare but natural occurrence, possibly worsened by human impact and climate change. The open ocean is only a few miles away, but marine animals including our sharks do not know that and they simply try and gasp for air, and many of them do not see the end of the day. On top of suffocating, they are also often caught by opportunistic bystanders to be eaten or sold.

In the course of the morning, we could save a total of 13 sharks and stingrays by simply loading them into our cars and taking them back to the open ocean. 

Antoine scored another trip to the emergency room when his hand got cut by a stingray barb, but he was soon released with a plaster around his thumb and antibiotics, and he is already back to normal again, ready for his next injury. 

By the end of the day, the oxygen levels had recovered and we did not spot any more struggling sharks, stingrays or fish.

It was not the only exciting and unusual rescue day - we also got to release the loggerhead turtle Mathilde and Isabelle had found at Pelican Point last year. She was severely sunburnt and dehydrated and needed to stay at the Swakop Aquarium for a while for rehab. It was one of our favorite OCN moments so far when we got to put her back into the open ocean. She knew she was home and she disappeared within a few seconds. 
The release video will be published on Youtube this Saturday, and two hours after that we will have our 5th live session on Youtube!

Please join us this Saturday at 18h00 Namibian time for a live session on Youtube. We will talk about our rescues, the sharks, the turtle, the situation with marine phosphate mining and our plans for the year.   

If there are any specific questions you would like to ask, please email them to katja@ocnamibia.org.

We will try and address as many as possible. 

Last but not least: our seal rescues are going strong. We have saved 58 seals in 2022, our most successful day was yesterday with 4 rescues in one morning. It might be the first indicator that our rescue high season has started, and we will do our best to help as many animals as we can. Somebody has to do it, and thanks to all the support we are getting from people like you, we are ready to help. 

Thank you for your trust. 

Katja & Naude & the OCN Team