Posted on 28 September 2023
Video footage documents the efforts of James Suter, a private guide and filmmaker, along with his brother-in-law as they come to the rescue of three young seals ensnared in a fishing net on a beach within West Coast National Park.
The video captures the rescuers using a Leatherman tool to carefully sever the net, freeing two of the seals. Suter mentions that a third seal had also been trapped but was not captured on camera.
Upon sharing the video on social media, Suter implored viewers to watch until the end, where it shows the newly liberated seals huddled together, comforting each other as they make their way back into the ocean, free from the entangling net.
Suter took this opportunity to emphasise the importance of actively contributing to efforts to reduce the presence of plastic and other pollutants in our oceans.
‘It was a very tangible reminder of how important it is to educate ourselves, clean up our beaches and work to ensure plastic and things like this are not in our oceans. There is so much plastic and other waste, I can’t imagine what animals go through.’
Watch the video below:
This article was originally published on CapeTownETC
