Baby seals are way too cute to get wrapped up in old fishing nets, aren’t they? Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
There’s nothing quite as cute as a baby seal. And there’s nothing quite as heartbreaking as a helpless, cute, baby creature in distress. So for that, I apologize. Just know that the ending of the video you see below is a happy one.
It comes from Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN), a wonderful group of people dedicated to the protection of Namibia’s marine wildlife. It was started back in 2020 by Naude and Katja Dreyer with the intent of creating more awareness about the impact of plastic pollution on animals in the area, especially the seals.
Based in Walvis Bay, Namibia, Ocean Conservation Namibia is just a stone’s throw from one of the world’s most perfect waves. Skeleton Bay has been the location for some of the best surf clips in existence, like this one.
The 9-minute video shows seven different seals, all with their own entanglements. It’s a window into just how much trash there is that poses a danger to the seals just trying to live their lives there. While they’re all sad, the saddest of them all is the third seal, which has an old fishing net wrapped around it.
“Dragging such a heavy net around its neck gave the baby seal no chance of making it,” OCN wrote. “He could barely move. Weighing more than a wet rescue net, the net would’ve eventually killed the baby seal.”
Thankfully, the group was there to cut it free, but one can’t help but think how many other seals there are out there that aren’t lucky enough to be found by OCN workers.
