Many marine wildlife groups working in Cornwall often get calls about sighting of seals who are injured, or entangled in fishing gear, or marine litter.
Over the last month, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and the National Trust received several calls about a seal entangled in lost fishing gear but despite repeated search attempts by BDMLR, the seal in question could not be found. A concern to all as injuries from entanglement are known to end the life of a seal prematurely.
On Saturday 25 April another trip was undertaken to find the stricken seal and when the groups arrived at the beach they found not one, but two entangled seals, one on the beach at the West Cornwall haul out and another out to sea.
Despite facing rain and slippery rocks, the team from BDMLR, Cornwall Seal Group and a rope safety adviser abseiled down a 45m cliff to the beach in order to save the seals, whose injuries would have certainly lead to their premature death.
Seals are spooked by humans very easily and can move incredibly fast over land, so the rescuers waited cautiously until both seals were on the beach, out of sight from the abseil point and in a position that they could be reached before the seals were aware of human presence.
With years of experience in handling marine mammals, the team were able to free both the seals from the dangerous netting and rope and after assessing their condition they were able to release them safely back into the sea.
Sue Sayer, from the Cornwall Seal Group, said: “One of the seals was a few months old and had green trawl net trapped around her neck whilst the other seal was slightly older at a year, with blue rope trailing from several loops of monofilament net entangling her neck. Our research shows that neither of these young seals would have survived to adult hood with their entanglements.”
The BDMLR and CSG work closely with international campaigning organisation, World Animal Protection, who have a campaign to free the seas of ghost fishing gear. ‘Ghost gear’ is the term used to describe fishing equipment that has been lost, abandoned or discarded in the worlds’ oceans. It includes fishing nets, ropes, pots and traps. Ghost gear represents one of the biggest threats to animals in our oceans, entangling, injuring and killing millions of animals every year.
An estimated 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear – around 10% of total marine debris – is added to our oceans annually. Combined, it weighs more than the RMS Titanic.
Most fishing gear is made out of plastic meaning that it persists in the oceans for centuries, accumulating year on year. World Animal Protection estimates that more than 136,000 seals, sea lions and large whales are killed by ghost fishing gear every year. An unimaginable number of birds, turtles, fish and other species are also injured and killed.
Guest contributor:
Sarah Dickinson is the UK Communications Manager (interim) at World Animal Protection World Animal Protection (formerly WSPA) seeks to create a world where animal welfare matters and animal cruelty has ended.
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