Cape Town - The Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department discovered something different when they helped a Kalk Bay seal which was found with an unusual object around his neck.
SPCA spokesperson Belinda Abrahams says that Brutus the seal was approached while still in his morning slumber on the harbour pier.
“Brutus opened a wary eye and regarded his ‘helper’ with disdain but also seemed to understand what the objective was here. He drew himself up on his fore-flippers and yawned a big yawn, exposing the entanglement that was now noted to be already cutting into his flesh,” she explains.
A piece of shaped plastic was all that could be seen from the outside as the binding it was tied to was already embedding itself into the seal’s thick neck blubber.
Upon examining it, the item appeared to be the string and the plastic base of a children’s dummy sweet.
“No less a danger to marine life than fishing lines or plastic binding, and a reminder to us all that anything with a hoop shape that is discarded into nature presents a possible ensnarement risk to a wild animal,” Abraham says.
Wildlife Department supervisor Jon Friedman says the “necklace” is an unusual find.
“This appeared to be something new, not the usual fishing gut or plastic box binding we find ensnaring seals,” Friedman says.
Meanwhile, the SPCA encouraged residents visiting areas like the Kalk Bay Harbour, to dispose of their waste properly in rubbish bins to avoid incidents like these.