Straps and nets ‘killing fur-seals’

Press, 26 September 1989, Page 1

Straps and nets ‘killing fur-seals’

By

JANE DUNBAR

Plastic rubbish and nets are killing fur-seal pups off the West Coast, says the Conservation Department. Two fur-seal pups were cut free from nets by conservation officers last week at the Green’s Beach seal colony. The seals’ curiosity and playfulness meant they got caught in rubbish and nets which were polluting the sea, said one of the officers, Mr Gideon Anderson. Injuries from plastic straps were particularly gruesome as the straps were forced down the seals as they mbved, and sliced into their flesh.

Young pups were vulnerable to the straps which fitted easily over their heads and cut into them as they grew. The nets which trapped the seals were probably part of trawl nets from offshore fishing boats which had snagged, or had holes torn in them. Seals caught in a whole net would not survive.

One of the pups rescued last week had been entangled in a large amoung of nylon trawl net. The other was badly injured by a small amount of thin nylon filament netting • which cut into its neck. Once released, the seal was too weak to return immediately to the water.

The Conservation Department is asking the public to keep an eye out for any seals found with plastic straps or netting round their bodies this summer.

Nearly 180 seal deaths have been reported in the last few months by observers on boats working the hoki fishery off the West Coast.

The observers were on only eight of the 43 boats in the fishery. There were no reports of seals caught in trawl nets from boats without observers.

The largest population of New, Zealand fur-seals is found on the rocky shores of Westland and Fiordland. ■