Not the best way to wake up, but he’ll have a much easier time going forward. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
If you’re a fur seal living in the waters of Walvis Bay, Namibia, you likely have a few things to contend with. Predators, of course, but also a scourge of pollution that tends to get wrapped around you, cut into your flesh, and make life much harder than it needs to be. Luckily for those particular seals, there’s a group called Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN).
In the video you see here, things are done a little different than OCN usually does. On a normal day, OCN workers will storm a beach — their favorite stomping grounds is just a stone’s throw from one of the best waves in the world, Skeleton Bay — spot a seal in need of a little helping hand, bag it, and cut off whatever it is that’s imposing on the seal’s blubbery body. It’s tough, thankless work, but someone’s got to do it and OCN does.
Here, though, a rescuer named Antoine employs a sneakier method after spotting a big bull fast asleep on the dock at the Walvis Bay docks. He’s got two plastic straps cinched around his neck.
“Getting access isn’t easy,” OCN wrote. “Antoine has to navigate the jetty and carefully clear a path through other seals without waking the target. This is a game of patience and planning; in this environment, you often only get one shot before the seal flees into the water. To make matters worse, this seal was caught in not one, but TWO separate plastic straps. Luckily, Antoine’s years of experience mean he knows exactly how to strike with precision. Excellent job!”
