The Hout Bay Seal Rescue and Rehabilitation Center (HBSRC) have urged mense to avoid contact with seals or any other wild animals while visiting the beach.
Instead the HBSRC wants beachgoers to report incidents should they find stranded, aggressive or injured seals.
This comes after several surfers who were taking part in a longboard competition at Muizenberg Beach on Sunday are thought to have been bitten and harassed by an aggressive juvenile Cape Fur Seal.
The seal later died and its carcass was collected.
A full post-mortem into the death of the seal revealed that the animal was nutritionally healthy, weighing 16 kgs and with a 13 mm fat layer.
A statement by the Cape of Good Hope SPCA and the City of Cape Town says it appears the seal had died from a head injury.
“There was evidence of blunt force trauma to the head, with clear and significant bruising to skull and brain haemorrhage, specifically severe subdural brain haemorrhage which is the likely cause of death of the seal,” the statement says.
HBSRC CEO Kim Krynauw says swimmers should never attempt to fight wild animals in the water.
“When you are in a wild animal's domain you are not going to win so it's important to note to get out of the water. (It’s) very important never to approach a seal no matter the size of the animal,” she explains.
Dogs should also be kept on a lease, according to Krynauw, as a seal bite might be fatal. However, there is still no concrete evidence of either rabies or domoic acid from such bites.
“We have never had a report of a seal with rabies and our centre has been going since 1999. The last reported case of distemper was in 2002, dog transferred to seal,” Krynauw says.
Belinda Abraham of the SPCA, says the FIDSSA recorded just one instance of rabies in a seal, and that incident took place offshore.
She adds that it is extremely rare and highly unlikely for seals to be infected with rabies.
The HBSRC urges anyone who comes across any seal to contact it at 072 988 5193.
byron.lukas@inl.co.za