Jan Koning from Vlieland came across this awfully tied up seal in a piece of net on the Engelse Hoek sandbank on Friday evening. Possibly, it got stuck while hunting for food, but it could also have been playful curiosity that caused the animal to become caught up. The struggle caused the net to cut deeply into its body.
When its back flippers and tail got tied up too, the poor animal was barely able to move. Jan Koning immediately warned Hessel Wiegman from Terschelling, who came to the sandbank with one of Rederij Noordgat’s speedboats.
Carefully, Hessel picked the poor animal up and brought it to Harlingen by speedboat where the SRRC’s ambulance, which had already been alerted, already stood waiting. Part of the net was removed on the spot, so that, at least, the seal was able to move a bit. The rest of the net was so deeply imbedded in the wounds, that the vet in Pieterburen was busy for hours that night to remove the instrument of torture.
Rest, good care and food are the remedies we hope will now cure the (approximately two year old) seal, so that it can be released back to sea when healthy.
This kind of floating nets form one of the gravest dangers to all marine animals. Nets always hook onto things, even when they are no longer attached to ships. Every year, hundreds of fish, birds, dolphins, porpoises, seals and whales die because they get trapped in similar pieces of stray net.
Over the years, the SRRC has paid for the collection hundreds of stray nets in cooperation with many fishermen. A mountain, containing 900 tons of nets, lies behind the SRRC in Pieterburen as a symbolic monument.
At the moment, an organisation is being funded to collect stray nets and other litter, but there is not enough money to collect nets from all the boats.
05-30-2009 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
