At the V&A Waterfront, a shopping destination and marina in Cape Town, South Africa, playful fur seals can often be seen swimming through the harbor, occasionally resting on special platforms installed by local wildlife advocates.
Recently, four of these
curious seals noticed a dry dock — a deep basin that can be flooded and drained, allowing ships to enter and exit for maintenance — and wandered inside while the gate was open. The animals slipped past busy dock workers and accidentally became trapped inside when the gate closed.
By the time the workers noticed the seals, the dock was fully flooded, and a boat was already inside. Terrified by the noisy boat construction, the seals fled into a series of tunnels off the dock and became lost in the dark caverns.
Dock employees contacted local rescuers with the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation’s Marine Wildlife Management Programme (MWMP), including Martine Viljoen, Abdullah Abrahams and Ayanda Cimani. Once the dock was emptied, team members hatched a plan. They donned hard hats and wetsuits and carefully picked their way along the tunnel, following the cries of the seals lost inside.
“Finally, as they rounded a corner, [they] saw the seals gathered together near a valve where the tunnel sloped upwards,” a representative told The Dodo.
Rescuers had dealt with seals in dry docks before, but typically the seals were on the dock floor, not inside the tunnels. To save the seals, they’d need to be patient.
“This was a super unique situation in that the tunnel itself was dark, slippery and cramped — it would have put both our team and the seals in danger to attempt to catch one of them in that environment,” the representative said. “The best way for us to rescue the seals was to wait for them to emerge voluntarily and rescue them on a case-by-case basis.”
Rescuers spent days trying to lure the seals out of the tunnels, playing recordings of seal calls over a speaker.
Finally, on day three, a seal poked her head out into the light. The team sprang into action, netted the seal, loaded her onto a stretcher, and moved her up to safety. They checked her for injuries and then released her back into the water.
“The seal wasted no time in leaping back into the ocean, where she immediately started twisting around in the water and grooming — both great signs that [she] was in good condition!” the representative said.
On day six, another seal emerged, and rescuers secured her the same way before releasing her into the harbor. Ten days later, one of the last two seals climbed up the dock walls and back into the open water, essentially saving himself.
“It was a weight off our shoulders knowing that three seals were now safely back in their ocean home, with only one more needing our help,” the representative said.
Day 17 coincided with the dock’s scheduled refilling. A rescuer observed the process to ensure the last seal was safe, watching as the animal happily splashed in the water and rose with the tide. Once at the top, the rescuer guided the seal along the harbor wall and watched as he plopped back into the ocean.
At last, all the seals were home.
“The whole team felt a huge sense of relief,” the representative said. “All four seals were back in the ocean, unscathed and still in good condition despite their stressful, multi-day experience.”
