Saving Seals

Every day, Cape fur seals succumb to wounds caused by bits of plastic cord, box bands, and discarded fishing line that become tangled around their necks. The only way to remove these nooses, and save their lives, is through human intervention - something that the Two Oceans Aquarium team at Cape Town's V&A Waterfront knows well, routinely using stealth and cunning to get close enough to help these distressed animals.

But, there is only so much that can be done. A new tool for seal welfare is needed...

Saving Seals is a short film made by local wildlife photographer and conservation ambassador Steve Benjamin of Animal Ocean Seal Snorkeling. It focuses on the breakthrough work being done by the Two Oceans Aquarium, the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation, V&A Waterfront's Marine Wildlife Management Programme, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries & Environment, and international collaborators to develop a protocol to safely tranquilise distressed seals so that they can be helped. Saving Seals explores the history of the seal disentanglement programme at the V&A Waterfront, and the desperate need for this new technology, which is enabling those seals that cannot be helped through other means to finally be reached and disentangled.

Step into the world of the team that is Saving Seals.