With more than one million individuals, our seals are not endangered or threatened in Namibia. Even the mass die-off from 2020 does not have a lasting impact. Seals do not have natural predators like Great White Shark or Orca in Namibian waters, they are apex predators: they are on top of the food chain. Every year, many healthy seal pups are born to replace the ones who died from natural course. 

So why do we care so much about entangled seals anyways?

The answer is simple: because entanglements are not natural, and the situation is getting worse.

We do not interfere when nature takes its cause with sick or old animals, because those deaths serve a purpose in the bigger picture. During a camping trip up the Namibian coast, Naude and his son Dylan got to witness how our famous desert lions had to resort to eating dead seal pups on the beach due to a lack of food availibility. Seals are not their  prey of choice, they scavenge seal pups because they have nothing else left. Ongoing droughts and poaching have taken away their usual food sources and Namibia could have lost some of its precious and very endangered desert lions. This is how a functioning eco-system works: nothing gets lost, everything serves a purpose.  

Entangled seals do not fall into this bracket. Entanglements are ALWAYS caused by humans, either through negligence or greed or disrespect for nature, sometimes intentional, often as collateral damage to the fishing industry. Entangled animals, including the ones we don't get to rescue like turtles and dolphins and fish are removed from the role they are playing in the bigger picture. Perfectly healthy animals do not get to breed and keep their species alive, they are left to die a horrible death. 
 

Our rescues stop entanglements on a very small scale, only one animal at a time. Our direct impact on the ecosystem is almost insignificant. But our pictures and videos aren't. They are our strongest tool. Seal rescues give plastic pollution and ocean rubbish a face, a very cute one. Our daily rescue brings the suffering of an innocent animal into your home, to your desk, or your couch or bed. We hope our rescue videos start a conversation between families, partners, colleagues and friends about the way we treat our planet. The plastic rubbish and ocean pollution crisis can only be solved at home, when we all change our own personal behaviour towards plastic and the kind of food we eat. That's the reason why we care so much about seals. We hope their suffering can be turned into something useful: change. 

25 seals have been rescued in January so far, and a few more in February. It is very hot in Namibia at the moment, and our seals prefer to spend daylight hours in the water, but we will do our best to find the entangled ones and free them from their rubbish necklaces. 
 

Thank you for helping us spread our message. 

Katja & Naude & the OCN Team