Sharpshooters to take out seals

2006-03-23 07:54

Jan Taljaard

Lambert's Bay - Sharpshooters and an electrified fence are among measures that will probably be taken soon to curb the activities of murderous seals on Bird Island.

Attacks by seals on the gannet breeding colony since October eventually led to the birds abandoning the island completely in December. Only a few "problem seals" are thought to be responsible for the slaughter.

The measures are included in the final recommendations contained in a report by a task team appointed to investigate the attacks on the gannets. The report will now be submitted to Minister of Environmental Affairs Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

Bird Island is about 2,2 ha in size and a harbour wall joins it to the mainland. The island is one of only six gannet breeding colonies in the world and the only one where visitors can see the birds at close range.

One of the task team's recommendations is that a project manager, who is also a sharpshooter, should be appointed for a contract period of three years.

He'd be assisted by another sharpshooter, also be an experienced technician. They would furthermore be responsible for collecting scientific information and training local seabird monitors.

Seal population increases by about 4% a year

Another recommendation is that seals venturing into the breeding area, or seals attacking birds in the surrounding water, should be shot or removed. The electrified fence will be built between the rocks where the seals mainly stay and the area where the birds bred.

The drastic recommendations follow after a 1990 prohibition on harvesting seals for commercial purposes. Since then some estimates indicate that the seal population has increased by about 4% a year, while it is generally acknowledged that the animals are a threat to birds such as gannets.

Bird Island action committee chairperson Mariette Breytenbach welcomed the recommendations but fears that shooting the seals could lead to emotional protest action.

She said the island was one of the greatest tourist attractions at Lambert's Bay, and overseas visitors were particularly aware of it.

"Tourist buses always stop here on the way to Namibia. If they drive past in future, this place will become just another ghost town," she said.

Other recommendations from the task team are that a trial run should begin in October this year to try to chase the seals off the island. If the trial run succeeds, it could be a way of getting the gannets to return to the island, without killing seals.

Initially the plan was that seals should begin being chased away as early as June but biologists were worried that this might lead to excessive deaths among seal pups. Most of the baby seals should be weaned by October.

The task team also recommended that contraceptive methods be investigated to limit the number of seals on the island in the long term.

- Die Burger