Having sat with Namibian Prime Minister and Minister of Fisheries, and Namibian Industry, and the sole remaining fur buyer, Hosted the Namibian Ombudsman – the time has come to educate and host the Namibian Media in Cpt. — Francois Hugo
https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-seals-of-nam/media-invite-seal-conference/331895080192736
As you are aware, there is much controversy currently being debated with regards to the harvesting of seals in Namibia. We had hoped that the Ombudsman’s meeting in September would have allowed for unbiased reporting on the situation, however Adv. Walters excluded the media from attending.
In the interests of clearing up any misinformation, and to allow the media a fair opportunity to see for themselves the reality of the situation, Francois Hugo of Seal Alert SA has kindly offered to host the media at a special media conference to be held in Cape Town.
The importance of this meeting cannot be understated. We hereby extend an invite to the major media houses to send a senior reporter to join us at this conference. There will be no obligation on their part as to how they wish to report on the presentation.
As your host, Seal Alert-SA will welcome you to it’s Seal Rescue facilities in Hout Bay, where you can interact with seals of all ages face to face to gather a true understanding of their behaviour. This will be followed by a media presentation and Q&A session.
We are also inviting all stakeholders who attended the Ombudsmans meeting in September to join us. This will give them an opportunity to submit their presentations to the media who may also wish to direct further questions during the Q&A session.
In order to best accommodate everyone, we would like to propose the date for this conference to be on Monday 16 April 2012.
Any interested reporters are asked to respond as a matter of urgency so we may begin with the necessary arrangements. Please include the name and contact details of your designated senior reporter who will be attending as well as particulars regarding dietary requirements. (Halal, Kosher, Vegetarian etc)
On behalf of “The Seals of Nam” and “Seal Alert SA” we look forward to hearing from you.
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Dated : 26 March 2012
Dear John Walters/Namibian Ombudsman,
Re : Over-Exploitation of Cape Fur Seals in Namibia
Further to my letter dated 15 March 2012.
The Minister of Fisheries and the Ombudsman have a constitutional and statutory duty to prevent/investigate over-utilization of living resources, in this case the seal harvest.
In your letter dated 20 February 2012, you stated that the latest seal pup population survey undertaken in December 2011, is vital to reach conclusions.
It is therefore assumed you require this to assess over-utilization.
However, there are conflicting instances that occur were pup population surveys do not reflect physical observations.
The Minister of Fisheries claimed that during a 2006 pup population survey, Cape Cross seal colony, Namibia’s largest seal colony, recorded its highest pup production on record of 65 073 pups. No factual independent or photographic proof was provided to support these claims. Which in turn lead the Minister of Fisheries to increase the pup TAC from 65 000 (2005) to 85 000 (2006), an increase of over 30 percent, with Cape Cross seal colony being awarded a 50 000 pup TAC of this total TAC.
After just 21 days into a 139 day seal harvesting season, Seal Alert-SA flew over the entire seal colony at Cape Cross on the 10th August 2007, and factually photographed Cape Cross in High Definition with not a single seal present in the seal colony (See photograph).
Cape fur seal breeding colonies are functioning year around, particularly during the sealing season from 1 July to 15 November. More so, if 65 073 pups were recorded in December, this would intimate a total seal population, if true, of around 240 000 seals.
So which fact of over-utilization do you as the Ombudsman of Namibia use? The photographic evidence submitted by Seal Alert-SA showing not a single seal present at Cape Cross or the Minister’s on paper population survey of 240 000 seals or 65 073 pups allegedly recorded?
The Minister of Fisheries also issued rolling set three-year pup TAC’s for 2006, 2007 and 2008. Well aware that a major mass die-off had occurred in 2006. The Minister of Fisheries secured a further three year rolling pup TAC for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Again Seal Alert-SA has photographic proof of a vastly depleted seal colony at Cape Cross, numbering no where near the pup population the Minister claims exists prior to the start of sealing season.
What other evidence exists of allegedly falsified pup populations? In 2006, it was alleged Dolphin Head seal colony, (a colony formed immediately opposite Mercury Island, after seals were chased and banned from breeding or living on the island), had increased from 0 pups in 2002, to now record 1385 pups being born there in 2006. This is a non-harvested seal colony. During the Ombudsman Seal Conference in September 2011, the Ministry of Fisheries alleges that this seal colony at Dolphin Head has now more than doubled to over 3000 pups recorded in 2008.
Seal Alert-SA also flew over this seal colony in 2007, and recorded a completely extinct seal colony, void of any seals anywhere – and recorded so photographically.
Again, as Namibia’s Ombudsman, you are not physically involved in the actual pup population surveys, who do you believe – and what facts or proof, will decide over-utilization?
Likewise I have it on good authority, the Minister of Fisheries tried to conceal the 1994 mass die-off of seals in Namibia. Rejecting any offers of outside help or assistance in determining the cause of the largest mass die-off of marine mammals on record worldwide. The comments published in the Namibia Brief, No20, January 1998 by Dr Jean-Paul Roux, head of the marine mammal section at the Ministry of Fisheries in Namibia, make startling reading, and I quote, “The Namibian pilchard stock estimates, decreased from more than 400 000 tons in 1993 to less than 200 000 tons at the end of 1994. This trend worsened in 1995, it was alleged the cause was “the effects of abnormal environmental conditions”.
Deluding any references to over-utilization of the pilchard stock by both the Minister and commercial fishing industries, that recorded overfishing practices of 1,387, 000 tons in 1968 or that total catch of pilchards had dropped to 1 171 tons by 1995 or just 0,08 percent of what was caught 27 years earlier.
Dr J-P Roux, writes further, “The seal population was effected quite dramatically by these events. From January 1994, pup growth was very low due to lack of prey (pilchards) available to lactating females. The pups were losing weight in March and pup mortality increased. By July 1994 researchers of the Marine Mammal Section estimated that less than 5 % of the 200 000 strong 1993/1994 cohort would survive to the weaning age. In mid-June the average mass of the few surviving pups was just over 8,6kg, nearly 5 kg less than the average for the previous seven years”.
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Seal Alert Sends Report To Namibia’s Ombudsman – Seal Population Surveys.
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