"Intervening like this is not something that we do light-heartedly," a spokesperson said
Credit: St. Mary’s Island Wildlife Conservation Society
NEED TO KNOW
- A seal pup was rescued by a wildlife conservation team after being trapped in a discarded fishing net
- The team waited for the tide to get to the pup before safely removing the net, and it had no injuries
- They warned that fishing gear and plastic rings pose serious risks to the seals, who often get entangled
A seal pup thankfully managed to escape a terrifying situation after a discarded fishing net got tangled around its neck.
A volunteer from St. Mary's Island Wildlife Conservation Society in England spotted the seal pup on St. Mary's Island in Whitley Bay.
The organization was then able to reach the animal, who was only a few months old. They saved it from the net, and no damage was caused to the pup.
Credit: St. Mary’s Island Wildlife Conservation Society
"[The net] cuts into the seal's flesh like a cheese wire," a spokesperson for St. Mary's Island Wildlife Conservation Society told the BBC about how the fishing gear can prove fatal to the seal pups, especially if they can't free themselves.
"It will just keep cutting and cutting as the seal grows and cut right down through its blubber into its muscle, and it will kill it eventually," the spokesperson added.
She also explained that the rescue team had to wait for the tide to "come in" until they could go help the seal pup, as it was surrounded by other pups who could've jumped off higher rocks and injured themselves doing that.
"It's always a difficult one having to wait, but this one was lucky in that as the tide came in, it became more isolated from the others, and we were able to respond to it," she said, with the outlet noting that she was part of the team that raced to save the seal pup.
"Intervening like this is not something that we do light-heartedly," she added. "We kind of feel a responsibility when an animal is caught in man-made rubbish, so we do feel we need to intervene then, but the general rule is to give them plenty of space."
The conservation society has dealt with similar cases of the seal pups being entangled in the fishing gear, but the spokesperson also noted that they are "feisty" animals that require special care.
"They're very curious animals, so anything in the water, they will then investigate, and in this case, it stuck its head through and got stuck; it is something that happens regularly," she said. "Luckily, this one hadn't been entangled for very long, so it hadn't started to cut through."
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She told the BBC that plastic rings for throwing are also dangerous for seals, who generally need to go to the veterinarian if they are wounded by any entangled objects.
She said, "In this case, we managed to get it off quick enough that it hadn't actually caused any injury, so it could just move off, although it was a bit cross with us."
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