SEAL WELFARE AND CONSERVATION OVER THE PAST 100 YEARS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA A DISGRACE

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PRESS RELEASE AUGUST 19 2001 SEAL WELFARE AND CONSERVATION OVER THE PAST 100 YEARS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA A DISGRACEIn protest against the continuing enforcement of clearly outdatedprovincial ordinances to the detriment of animal welfare, and in the lightof advice that NEMA has made the permit system obsolete, we intend toboycott our provincial nature conservation authorities and carry on ourwork outside the permit system."SEAL ALERT-SA has risen to the cries of over 3 million deceased seals,slaughtered in Southern Africa. It is a private initiative to thoroughlyinvestigate the present management of the South African Authoritieswith particular regard to SEAL WELFARE and PROTECTION. SEAL ALERT SA isalso in the process of establishing South Africa’s first NATURAL CARE SEALRESCUE & REHABILITATION SANCTUARY as well as developing a world firstprotocol for effective WILD ADULT SEAL RESCUE & REHABILITATION. Our findings to date are defined in point form below.

1. The Seal Protection Act of 1973, affords the seal no welfare orprotection. It’s purpose is to control the culling of the animal.

2. Marine and Coastal Management MCM and SPCA are guilty of grossmismanagement in relation to international accepted protocols

dealing in injured, sick or seal strandings.

3. There are no acceptably qualified Seal Rehabilitation experts, noRehabilitation Facilities of any sort, no protocols governing Seal

Treatment, Rescue or Release.

4. Officials within MCM and SPCA should in fact be investigated andcharged for cruelty, disturbance, behavioural changes and wrongful death,

under their own respective acts.

5. A Seal Crisis should be publicly declared.Their behaviour with regard to Seal Welfare has been disgraceful, lying,non-transparent, illegal, incompetent and invasive. Their actions aretantamount to gestaporism and thuggery. Their actions over the past 10years makes a complete mockery out of conservation and animal welfare. Theentire mismanagement of a protected species under CITES appendix 2, shouldbe investigated at the highest level. The HARMS commission report, shouldbe re-opened and completely re-investigated. The collusion between SouthAfrica and Namibia, with regard to the management of this protectedspecies, should be investigated at an international level.The truth behind the South African authorities claim in 1999 that, overthe past 100 years, seals can be regarded as one of the most outstandingsuccess stories of marine conservation in southern Africa.

In the past 60 years alone, 90% of the Southern African Fur Seals have beenhidden from public access, behind guarded fences. 54% of their offshoreseal island colonies have become extinct, 75% of all pups are now bornun-naturally on the mainland and 70-80% now reside in the north, out ofSouth African waters, in Namibia. In reality the number of South AfricanCape Fur Seals, left in South Africa, breeding and living in our localizedwaters today is less than 10%, and breeding females numbers have reduced toless than 20 000. (Excluding for demographic purposes the mainland colony, Kleinsee)In the past 7 years, Namibia has witnessed 3 mass die-off of sealsinvolving in each case over 250 000 seals dying. No outside internationalinvestigation by scientists was permitted into causes of these mass deaths.As recently as December 2000, over 250 000 seals died from starvation,including 100 000 adults, this was after 4 months previously, when Namibiadoubled it’s pup cull quota from 30 000 to 60 000, and 5000 to 7000 bullsand has extended it’s cull period to 6 months to facilitate these increasednumbers. Back to South African Seals, how is it that the South African authoritiescan in 1999 claim, that over the past 100 years, seals can be regarded asone of the most outstanding success stories of marine conservation insouthern Africa and when the chief director of SA Fisheries states, ‘it isin no danger whatever of extinction, and that Namibia and South Africasupport a very healthy population of around 2 million seals at present’.When in fact South Africa in 2001, is effectively down to 5 - 10% of theexisting population and Namibia is on a policy of mass destruction.The question above all else is, what caused this mass un-natural movementnorth conveniently, it cannot be fish movements north, as Namibia appearsto be worse off, than South African fisheries, almost in complete collapse.I believe it was ‘man induced physically’, evidence can be shown wherepersons were sent to barren offshore rocky islands for periods of 2 years,with the sole purpose, of beating every seal off the island, every lastone. If I am correct, then our conservation authorities are guilty of thebiggest cover-up and lies and mismanagement the world has yet to see. Forin so doing, they have knowingly forced together tens of thousands ofbreeding females, forced to produce and wean on small, diamond controlled,public restricted beaches, that ensures that the natural mortality ofnew-born is substantially and artificially increased by the un-naturalintroduction of land based predators, jackals, hyenas and lions, todefenseless pups. Whilst at the same time increasing commercial fishquota’s, whilst knowingly in the realization, that more than 100 000breeding females departing from one human condensed mainland beach, willnot be able to sustain, themselves, their new-born pup or the growingembryo, thereby resulting in 3 mass starvation’s of hundreds of thousandsas witnessed in only the past 7 years To take matters further, even into Hitlerism or apartheidness and if I amright, the Southern African authorities have embarked upon a program ofmass misinformation and mass destruction to its citizens and the world.Advocating or condoning acts of violence, unbelievable cruelty, bypropagating the concept of too many seals, culling, public shootings,aggressive animals and concepts of vermin. Decades of misinformation andgovernment collaboration have resulted in a breed of thousands of humans,that fishes, and that instinctively hates and therefore kills defenselessseals on sight.Resulting in a situation in 2001, where almost every fisherman on sightkills seals at random. Where 20 000 defenseless remaining females’ seals,could be killed 700 000 times per year or 10% per day, each day. Where1-50% could be drowned, clubbed or killed per day in 65 000 trawls per yearwhere 1-60 is entrapped. Where a public ‘family snoek festival’ held on theweekend of the 12-08-2001, and sponsored by a commercial fishing publiccompany, resulted in one weekend competitor shooting 50 seals to death,where in another incident, a seal swallowed a fish hook, this wasphysically pulled with such force, that it tore the animals face apart,which was then routinely shot to death, in front of a chairman of ourNational Sea Rescue Institute and within shouting distance of the shore.A country that witnesses hundreds of ski-boat fisherman, converging on onespot in a marine reserve and shooting seals with such confusion andrepartition, that people abroad these vessels, feared for their very ownlives. A country that witness’s daily the departing of hand line andtrawler fisherman, from our harbours, with guns slung on shoulders, high. Acountry that claims to have one of the world’s biggest seal populations,but unfortunately no seal welfare laws, nor any means of seal rescue,treatment or facilities. Where mass stranding of live pups go un-investigated, and are ordered to bedestroyed, and bulldozers brought in to dump 2.5 tons daily. Where localwelfare organizations routinely remove thousands of sick and injured sealstranding and simply destroy.If you still do not believe me, consider this Hitler did it with the Jews,Apartheid did it with the black population, is it so hard to believe thatit was not done in the Marine Environment.For the SealsFrancois Hugo - Seal Alert SAhttp://sasealionhttp://www.sealalert.co.zatel: 27 21-83 730 0169