Thousands of seals found dead in Namibia

The cause of the mass die off is yet to be established but scientists suspect anything from pollutants or bacterial infection to malnutrition.

Updated - November 28, 2021 01:33 pm IST

Published - October 26, 2020 11:46 am IST - Johannesburg, South Africa

A dead seal lies on a beach near Pelican Point, Namibia, October 23, 2020. Picture taken October 23, 2020.

A dead seal lies on a beach near Pelican Point, Namibia, October 23, 2020. Picture taken October 23, 2020.

 

An estimated 7,000 Cape fur seals have been discovered dead at a breeding colony in central Namibia, scientists said on Saturday.

Conservationist Naude Dreyer of the charity Ocean Conservation Namibia began noticing dead seals littering the sandy beaches of the Pelican Point colony near Walvis Bay city in September.

Then in the first two weeks of October he found large numbers of seal foetuses at the colony, Dr. Tess Gridley from the Namibian Dolphin Project told AFP by phone.

Fur seals normally give birth between mid-November and mid-December.

Dead seal foetuses are seen near adult seals on a beach near Pelican Point, Namibia October 8, 2020. Picture taken with a drone on October 8, 2020.

Dead seal foetuses are seen near adult seals on a beach near Pelican Point, Namibia October 8, 2020. Picture taken with a drone on October 8, 2020.

Gridley estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 female seals had miscarried young with more still being found.

The cause of the mass die off is yet to be established but scientists suspect anything from pollutants or bacterial infection to malnutrition.

Some of the dead females found were “thin-looking, emaciated, with very little fat reserves,” said Gridley. Scientists are collecting samples for testing.

 

In 1994 some 10,000 seals died and 15,000 foetuses were aborted in a mass die off that was linked to starvation suspected to have resulted from a shortage of fish as well as from a bacterial infection at another breeding colony, the Cape Cross, some 116 kilometres north of the central tourist town Swakopmund.

Annely Haiphene, executive director in the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine resources, told AFP she suspected the seals died from “lack of food” but will wait the outcome of the tests.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.