(Newswire.net— October 25, 2020) — The number of dead seals found on the Namibian coast has risen to more than 7,000, the Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN) has announced, Reuters reports.
OCN reported that last week thousands of dead seal cubs were found on the coast of the Pelican Point Peninsula, a tourist destination known for its colony of seals and flocks of dolphins.
A conservation group estimated that as many as 12,000 in total had been aborted by their mothers off the Namibian coast.
A marine biologist from OCN Nod Dreyer said that investigations last week revealed a large increase in the number of dead females. “What we have been observing is less freshly dead seal pups and a lot of dead female adults,” he said.
He said that the investigations were mainly concentrated on Pelican Point beach so that the total number of dead seals could be higher.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources announced last week that it would send samples to South Africa to determine the cause of death of the seals.
Dreyer said that this has not been done yet due to strict shipping guidelines in such situations.
“We are trying our best to find answers given the complex nature of the investigations where we don’t even know what we are looking for,” Dreyer said.
The Ministry didn’t disclose any comment so far, however, the OCN said last week that the probable cause of the mass deaths was the lack of fish, their main source of food, in the waters of Pelican Point.
The OCN also said that other reasons such as toxins or diseases could have caused the exodus of seals and cannot be ruled out without a complete investigation.
This is not the first time such horrifying scene can be seen at Pelican Point Peninsula. Reportedly, a similar tragedy occurred in 1994 when starvation led to the loss of about a third of the seal population at Pelican Point.