Seal Culling at Cape Cross in Namibia

Posted by Yolande Pienaar Jul 21, 2009

Besides Namibia, the only other country in the world, which allows the culling of seals, is Canada, which allows an annual Harp seal hunt. Animal rights activists have been lobbying for years to have the culling stopped as they argue that the seals do not exhaust the available fish consumed by humans. In Namibia, Francois Hugo of Seal Alert SA, tried to negotiate a deal with the buyer of Cape Fur Seal products from the Namibian government, an Australian citizen to buy all the rights to the seal products for ten years. As a result, the culling of the Cape Fur seals at Cape Cross Nature Reserve was suspended for two weeks.

Francois Hugo failed to raise the amount of money needed to secure the deal and the culling started on 16 July 2009. A British journalist Jim Wickens and his South African cameraman, Bart Smithers, were arrested trying to capture the brutal clubbing on film. According to the Boston Herald , the men were convicted of entering a protected area without a permit and fined N$10 000 (about US$1200) or 12 months imprisonment with an additional 6 months imprisonment conditionally suspended.

The Namibian government justifies the clubbing of the seal pups, some nursing, and the mature bulls, by quoting statistics indicating that the seals deplete the natural fish resources around the Namibian coast. According to the government the seals consume about 900 000 kilograms of fish yearly, which constitutes roughly a third of Namibia's entire fishing industry.

In order to prevent upsetting tourists to the area, the culling of the seals are done in a clandestine manner, preventing details of exactly how the culling is done to be distributed in the media. Several websites have obtained footage that they use to spur on other animal rights activists.

Whether the culling is justified or not, the Namibian government failed to avoid drawing attention to the culling taking place from July to November.