MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Mossel Bay is in the grip of a marine conservation crisis as 10 seals, killed by human beings, are being washed up per day.
The carcasses are appearing on beaches predominantly from Gourits to Glentana.
An expert in carcass management, with 20 years' experience, who is a contractor and works in co-operation with local and provincial government and marine conservation bodies, says the seals are shot, axed or hammered. If not shot, their skulls have been crushed.
"I follow strict protocols, collaborate with all parties concerned and only dispose of a carcass on instruction from authorities." The expert, who prefers not to be named, said he had to give constant reports on carcass disposal and he confirmed that the killings were being reported to the necessary law enforcement authorities.
On 8 January he was busy at the Point in Mossel Bay, handling a carcass with a gunshot wound, he suspected from a .22 firearm. "Most fishing vessels have firearms on board. A .22 has a silencer." He said it was a convenient, discreet firearm to use.
The carcass disposal expert says: "One cannot blame anyone outright, but I have noticed more seals are being killed now that there are more longliner fishing vessels off the coast. Many longliner buoys washed up, indicating the increase in these vessels off the coast. "I do not blame all longliners, however.
Honest fishermen
"There are honest fishermen out there." He noted that some boats had monitors on them from the provincial Department of Fisheries.
It was Mossel Bay marine enthusiast and photographer Johan Swanepoel who first alerted the Mossel Bay Advertiser to the current decimation of seals.
His SwimmingSharkville facebook page has nearly 4 000 followers.
The killing of seals by offshore fisherman has been reported on before but the problem has reached epidemic proportions since the end of 2018 according to the carcass disposal expert. The carcass expert said: "It could be because of the easterly wind that so many seals are washing up. One day you might have three, and next day 17. We don't usually have strong easterly winds.
"There has been an increase in washed up carcasses in the last two years and 2019 was astronomical."
The expert said the carcasses were fresh, on the whole. Blood was still pouring out of them, indicating the seals are shot not too far from the Mossel Bay coast. Besides the seal heads being pulverised, there were sometimes hooks in the nose or a chain around the neck.
Rope
He said some fishermen tied a rope around the seal's neck and threw the seal back into the water. It eventually drowned because it could not lift its head. "Depending on the current and wind, a seal killed in Gourits can wash up here." Christo Kruger, the co-owner of Great White Africa, which provides a shark cage diving service, said: "Orcas (killer whales) in the bay chased away the great white sharks in November."
This was concurred by Dr Enrico Gennari, the director of Oceans Research Institute in Mossel Bay. Kruger said some great whites had been spotted from helicopters. "This time of the year they don't eat seals. Generally, they leave the seal colony in the summer months. It happens every year at this time that great whites are scarce."
Gennari said: "This time of year the great whites don't focus on seals."
Gennari said longliners were threatening all the prey of white sharks, which besides seals, included smaller sharks.
A young seal with bullet wounds at De Bakke beach.
A wound on a seal, seemingly from a .22 bullet, at the Point in Mossel Bay.
With this carcass, the scull is crushed.
A carcass with gunshot wounds at the Point.
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