The majority of our seal entanglements in Namibia are caused by discarded fishing equipment, particularly fishing line. Over the past few days, we found an increasing amount of seals who had packaging strap wrapped around themselves. It could be an indicator that a large amount of packaging strap was thrown into the ocean somewhere close by. Packaging strap is extremely strong, it does not break as the seals grow. Eventually, the plastic starts cutting into the seals skin if not removed on time,

These seals were spotted in a small amount of time and rescued with no damage inflicted upon them by the entanglements. With lots of practice, we got better at spotting entangled seals. It is disheartening because it seems to get easier to spot them. It is not a good sign. | Ocean Conservation Namibia