With over a million seals in Namibia, many living in restricted areas, it is impossible to keep track of all our animals. We usually stick to Pelican Point and Cape Cross because they are the closest and most accessible areas for us. They are also the nearest colonies to the local fishing industry, where most of the entanglements originate. Those two areas keep us busy right through the year, and we barely find the time to visit other colonies.

January is always frustrating for us. We only caught 15 entangled seals at Pelican Point and Cape Cross. The beaches are too hot and full of tourists, and we can't blame the animals for staying in the water during the day. If there are entanglements, we do not even get to see them.

Instead of complaining and feeling sorry for our seals and ourselves, we decided it was the perfect time to check up on other seal colonies - so we took the team to Terrace Bay for a few rescue days. So we packed our rescue vehicle and drove 600km/400 miles along the coast to Namibia's Skeleton Coast National Park to try our luck there.

The terrain is similar to Cape Cross, but the seals are different because they are barely ever exposed to human interaction. The Skeleton Coast is virtually uninhabited and untamed, and seals are only joined by a few lions and hyenas who have been able to make it their home. We even checked in with the Namibian Desert Lion Foundation before we entered the territory; we did not want to encounter any wild lions while catching seals!

We did not know what to expect, and maybe we should have anticipated this - but we encountered some of the worst entanglement wounds we have ever seen. We caught 14 seals, and ten were so severely wounded that we do not know if we can even show the footage of the rescues. There were no quick and easy catch-and-release rescues; each seal made us work hard for their survival.

Plastic trash has infiltrated every single part of the planet. Even hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest civilization, seals are endangered by the usual suspects: packing straps, fishing lines, rope, plastic bags, clothing, fishing net, and any other imaginable item of commercial or household rubbish. It was incredibly disheartening to see what we already knew: there is no escape for marine animals. No safe space. No hidden paradise.

We see our own responsibility in this mess. OCN should have visited sooner and more regularly. For 2023, we will put Terrace Bay and the surrounding areas on our agenda, and hopefully, we will remove entanglements before the animals are in pain and suffering. Our trip to the North was a big wake-up call to continue the fight for each entangled animal. If we don't do it, nobody else will. We are highly motivated to make 2023 our best rescue year so far. There is no shortage of entangled seals, and we will try our best to find them all.

Thank you for joining us in our mission to raise awareness for the global plastic crisis and disentangle as many seals as possible.

The OCN Team