Thousands of emaciated Cape fur seals, including premature pups and sub-adult females, have washed up dead since the first reports of higher than normal mortalities at Paternoster, Shelly Beach and Elands Bay, emerged in early September.
is thought to be a major culprit behind the seal die-off, but efforts are ongoing to establish the root cause, said Tess Gridley, co-director of Sea Search and an extraordinary lecturer in the department of botany and zoology at Stellenbosch University.
“We can’t ‘prove’ it’s overfishing … I have to buy pilchards from Port Elizabeth because there just aren’t any,” she said. “We are struggling to find fish to feed the starving seals and we have to feed them pilchards or sardines because they are the highest in fat, in omegas, thiamine and vitamin B, which helps with brain development and has a calming effect on these poor little things,” she said.
According to Gridley, Cape fur seal populations are well-known to “boom or bust” and die-offs are not uncommon.
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