Thousands of Seal Pups Dead on Namibian Coast

Cape fur seals are the only marine mammal species endemic to the continent of Africa. This week, thousands of pups were found dead in Central Namibia. [Creative Commons]

Around 5,000 seal pups were found dead on the coastline of Namibia this week. The seal pup carcasses washed up on a beach in Walvis Bay, a popular tourist destination for animal watchers. 

The seal pups are part of the Cape fur seal species, which is endemic to the southeastern coast of Africa. Their habitat ranges from the southern tip of Angola to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. 

Groups of dead seal pups in October are not a rare occurrence—as a result of disease or food scarcity, cape fur seal mothers often naturally abort the undeveloped fetuses before the November birthing season. In 1994, the confluence of a rare oceanic event known as “Benguela Niño” and the outbreak of a seal-borne bacterium led to this arboting phenomenon. However, according to experts, a die-off of this magnitude is irregular.

“A few premature deaths is a natural event, but thousands of premature dead pups is extremely rare,” said Naude Dreyer, founder of Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN), a conservationist organization that protects and raises public awareness about Cape fur seals. Dreyer was the first person to attract public attention to the issue by posting aerial drone footage on Twitter of one of the seal colonies encircled by the dead pups.

The cause of this year’s unprecedented abortion numbers are still unknown, although some scientists familiar with the Namibian seal communities have put forward theories. For example, members of OCN say that the food resources are still too far from shore for mothers to utilize, leading to widespread malnutrition.

In conjunction with scientists and international wildlife activists, the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries is conducting tests on the fetuses to ascertain the true cause of the deaths. The ministry did not return a request for comment on the progress of the tests, but the samples will reportedly be sent to a lab in South Africa for examination.

A low pup yield this year could contribute to further decline of the Cape fur seal population, compounding years of populations decreases. Dr. Tess Gridley of the Namibian Dolphin Project, another group working on behalf of the fur seals, said that the Pelican Point seal colony in Walvis Bay will likely shrink as the pups will be unable to reproduce.

There is room for optimism though, as the seal communities, which number about 1.7 million altogether, are “quite resilient to these effects,” says Gridley. According to Dreyer, other seal colonies are not aborting their pups at the same rate.

The Namibian coast,considered one of the most ‘productive’ oceanic environments in the Atlantic,produces large quantities of organic matter that can sustain marine life. As a result, fishing, one of Namibia’s largest industries, contributes 10 billion Namibian dollars (about $616 million) to the national economy each year.

Unfortunately, the fishing industry reportedly put strain on the growth of the Cape’s fur seal population, whose diet relies on fish populations that are being decimated by industrial fisheries. Additionally, fur seals are still legally hunted for their oil and pelts in Namibia. The government allows the industry to take 80,000 fur seal pups and 6,000 bulls per year, numbers some experts believe to be too high to be sustainable—making the causes behind the abortions even more crucial to understand.

“Right now it’s really about careful monitoring and gathering as much scientific data as possible and really trying to get a grip on what’s happening at Pelican Point in Namibia,” said Dr. Gridley.