Yes, some Cape fur seals have rabies. No, ocean lovers aren't staying out of the sea
By Renée Bonorchis of The Ocean Advocate
More often than not Heidi Rolfe and her husband drop the kids at their schools and then meet up outside the Sentinel Café on the eastern corner of Hout Bay's beach. They're not there for coffee. They strip down to their swimsuits, in almost any weather, and swim hundreds of metres out to a buoy and back. They're not going to stop even though rabies is now endemic in the local Cape fur seal population.
"As with any other wild animal I keep my space from seals. I don’t approach them and if I come across an adult on my swim, I'll adjust my swim trajectory to give it space," Heidi said. But, she added, "we often have wonderful encounters with seals that come and play with us and swim with us. They approach us and you can immediately gauge their energy to be playful. I’ve never been attacked by a seal in Hout Bay and have been swimming every day for almost a year now."
The scuba divers are in
The Cape's best-known scuba divers aren't stopping either. Georgina Jones, author and co-author of a number of books about sea slugs and marine animals of the Cape Peninsula who has spent thousands of hours underwater, says she's definitely not staying out of the sea. And she's heard the same from her fellow divers, who are also some of the big names in the industry.
"So far my plan has been to avoid seal colonies," Jones said. "And make sure the skipper has experience in trauma medicine. Our general thoughts are that you can't avoid being bitten if one goes for you. You'd have to head back to the boat or the shore, wash the bite as much as possible, add loads of Bactroban and head off to professional medical help."
It's about staying away from seal-dense areas and hoping for the best, she said, while also admitting that it's scary to see the seals underwater right now.
The freedivers are in
The freedivers feel similarly. Daniela Daines, founder of Cape Town Freediving, said her team first noticed a change in seal behaviour four years ago. They decided to move activities away from the colony at Strawberry Rocks in Oudekraal.
"It was our feeling that the seal territory was becoming overpopulated, which may have caused males to become more aggressive," Daines said. "In addition, the huge increase in human traffic in seal areas may have added to their aggravated behaviour." The freedive community is as keen and passionate as ever about getting in the ocean, Daines said. But like Jones, the approach will be measured. "We remain in close contact with the relevant authorities and organisations, including Sea Search, which has been pivotal in seal data and research," Daines said.
Not the first rabies transmission
This transmission of rabies to a seal isn't the first recorded instance – it has happened in the Arctic before. What is a first is the spread of the disease, so much so that it's been labelled endemic and there are fears that when Antarctic animals migrate into the Western Cape's waters, the disease may be passed on and infect populations in other regions. Cape fur seals are only found from southern Angola to South Africa's Eastern Cape and the population is estimated at 2 million. Far from all of them will have rabies, but the businesses built on snorkelling and scuba diving with the seals have been forced to make changes.
Animal Ocean, which used to take 30 to 90 people a day to Duiker Island, south of Llandudno, to snorkel with these typically playful animals, has had to downsize. Founder Steve Benjamin said in a post that the business is selling its premises and will downscale, instead offering the likes of ocean safaris, film support, sardine run excursions in winter and other expeditions.
Pisces Divers in Simon's Town has dropped the seal dive from the tourist package it used to sell that included diving in a kelp forest followed by diving with the seals at Partridge Point in False Bay. But dives are still going out almost every day to the incredible variety of other sites on offer.
Vaccines and research
The Two Oceans Aquarium is also going to be in the water with the seals. It has had a seal platform in place for a few years now and the aquarium's wildlife management team was able to swim underneath and disentangle seals that had become wound up in ropes and plastic.
This platform is now going to play a vital role in developing a standard procedure for vaccinating, tagging and researching rabies in the Cape fur seals. Martine Viljoen, head of the wildlife management team, said they temporarily paused entering the water and instead used a specially designed pole with a cutting tool on the end to sever entanglements from above the platform.
"Despite this pause, our team has successfully disentangled 16 seals in July alone, not halting our team's rescue efforts," Viljoen said. Now, all team members have received rabies vaccinations and recently decided to resume entering the water if an entanglement can't be removed by other methods. "Before entering the water, additional precautions have been put in place, having observers monitoring seal behaviour before entry and two observers watching while a team member is in the water beneath the platform," Viljoen said.
Don't harm the seals
Apart from all these ocean lovers deciding to keep getting into the sea, another thing they have in common is a wish that the Cape fur seals won't be hurt or demonised.
"While it's normal to experience fear, it would be so wonderful to spread a little compassion and respect for the situation facing the seals and the marine world in general," Daines said. "Rabies is the symptom, what is the root cause? How can we adjust our human lives to live a more symbiotic life, in tune with nature?"
More often than not Heidi Rolfe and her husband drop the kids at their schools and then meet up outside the Sentinel Café on the eastern corner of Hout Bay's beach. They're not there for coffee. They strip down to their swimsuits, in almost any weather, and swim hundreds of metres out to a buoy and back. They're not going to stop even though rabies is now endemic in the local Cape fur seal population.
"As with any other wild animal I keep my space from seals. I don’t approach them and if I come across an adult on my swim, I'll adjust my swim trajectory to give it space," Heidi said. But, she added, "we often have wonderful encounters with seals that come and play with us and swim with us. They approach us and you can immediately gauge their energy to be playful. I’ve never been attacked by a seal in Hout Bay and have been swimming every day for almost a year now."
The scuba divers are in
The Cape's best-known scuba divers aren't stopping either. Georgina Jones, author and co-author of a number of books about sea slugs and marine animals of the Cape Peninsula who has spent thousands of hours underwater, says she's definitely not staying out of the sea. And she's heard the same from her fellow divers, who are also some of the big names in the industry.
"So far my plan has been to avoid seal colonies," Jones said. "And make sure the skipper has experience in trauma medicine. Our general thoughts are that you can't avoid being bitten if one goes for you. You'd have to head back to the boat or the shore, wash the bite as much as possible, add loads of Bactroban and head off to professional medical help."
It's about staying away from seal-dense areas and hoping for the best, she said, while also admitting that it's scary to see the seals underwater right now.
The freedivers are in
The freedivers feel similarly. Daniela Daines, founder of Cape Town Freediving, said her team first noticed a change in seal behaviour four years ago. They decided to move activities away from the colony at Strawberry Rocks in Oudekraal.
"It was our feeling that the seal territory was becoming overpopulated, which may have caused males to become more aggressive," Daines said. "In addition, the huge increase in human traffic in seal areas may have added to their aggravated behaviour." The freedive community is as keen and passionate as ever about getting in the ocean, Daines said. But like Jones, the approach will be measured. "We remain in close contact with the relevant authorities and organisations, including Sea Search, which has been pivotal in seal data and research," Daines said.
Not the first rabies transmission
This transmission of rabies to a seal isn't the first recorded instance – it has happened in the Arctic before. What is a first is the spread of the disease, so much so that it's been labelled endemic and there are fears that when Antarctic animals migrate into the Western Cape's waters, the disease may be passed on and infect populations in other regions. Cape fur seals are only found from southern Angola to South Africa's Eastern Cape and the population is estimated at 2 million. Far from all of them will have rabies, but the businesses built on snorkelling and scuba diving with the seals have been forced to make changes.
Animal Ocean, which used to take 30 to 90 people a day to Duiker Island, south of Llandudno, to snorkel with these typically playful animals, has had to downsize. Founder Steve Benjamin said in a post that the business is selling its premises and will downscale, instead offering the likes of ocean safaris, film support, sardine run excursions in winter and other expeditions.
Pisces Divers in Simon's Town has dropped the seal dive from the tourist package it used to sell that included diving in a kelp forest followed by diving with the seals at Partridge Point in False Bay. But dives are still going out almost every day to the incredible variety of other sites on offer.
Vaccines and research
The Two Oceans Aquarium is also going to be in the water with the seals. It has had a seal platform in place for a few years now and the aquarium's wildlife management team was able to swim underneath and disentangle seals that had become wound up in ropes and plastic.
This platform is now going to play a vital role in developing a standard procedure for vaccinating, tagging and researching rabies in the Cape fur seals. Martine Viljoen, head of the wildlife management team, said they temporarily paused entering the water and instead used a specially designed pole with a cutting tool on the end to sever entanglements from above the platform.
"Despite this pause, our team has successfully disentangled 16 seals in July alone, not halting our team's rescue efforts," Viljoen said. Now, all team members have received rabies vaccinations and recently decided to resume entering the water if an entanglement can't be removed by other methods. "Before entering the water, additional precautions have been put in place, having observers monitoring seal behaviour before entry and two observers watching while a team member is in the water beneath the platform," Viljoen said.
Don't harm the seals
Apart from all these ocean lovers deciding to keep getting into the sea, another thing they have in common is a wish that the Cape fur seals won't be hurt or demonised.
"While it's normal to experience fear, it would be so wonderful to spread a little compassion and respect for the situation facing the seals and the marine world in general," Daines said. "Rabies is the symptom, what is the root cause? How can we adjust our human lives to live a more symbiotic life, in tune with nature?"
The Ocean Advocate © 2023 by Renée Bonorchis is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International