Seals make themselves at home at Bientang’s
Hedda Mittner
A couple of stray Cape fur seals seems to have chosen Bientang’s Cave Sea World as their new home.
According to Giangi Negra, who has been the owner of Bientangs’s Cave since 1995, he has never seen seals on the rocks in front of his restaurant before.
“We spotted the first one on 12 August,” he said, “but a few days later it disappeared.” About two weeks late, a seal washed up dead on the rocks but it is not known if it was the same seal.
After a few days a seal pup arrived, and it’s possible that the dead seal could have been its mother. In recent weeks this pup has been joined by two other seals and they seem to have settled into a routine.
“They spend most of the day basking in the sun,” said Giangi’s partner, Sylvia Taylor, “and set off to hunt around17:00 in the afternoon.”
Together with marketing consultant Bonnie Crofford, Giangi and Sylvia are doing everything they can to assure that the seals are left in peace. “We don’t mind people observing them,” Bonnie said, “but we don’t want them chasing the seals away.”
According to Michelle Wcisel, marine biologist at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust (DICT), this is the time of year when seals turn up in strange places. “When the bulls return to the island, young rivals are often kicked off,” she said. “That may very well be the reason why these seals have surfaced at Bientang’s”
It seems a likely scenario, as the one seal has scratches on its body which led Bonnie to christen him Scar. The youngest pup has been named Hermana.
Source: Hermanus Times