A full week across education, monitoring and rescue: a school visit and Sammy’s spa send-off, an elephant seal bull tracked from Stilbaai up the coast to Hartenbos, an international marine mammal workshop in Cape Town, our AGM, and a surprise inland visitor washed up on Glentana beach. Busy, exhilarating and challenging.
Educational Visit & Sammy’s Spa Day: Curro School, George
📍 Location: Curro School, George 📅 Date: Tuesday 24 June 👤 Team: SMART education team
- We continued our educational programme with a visit to Curro School in George.
- Sammy, our mascot, has now been taken to Cape Town for a spa treatment at Mascots SA, where he was designed and made 6 years ago. He has undoubtedly been worth the hefty price tag: they told us he would now cost between R2,100 and R2,800.
- We wish him a happy hibernation during the school holidays.
🧸 Status: Off for a well-earned refurbishment and rest. Back in action next term.
Sighting: Elephant Seal Bull, Stilbaai
📍 Location: Stilbaai (outside our area) 📅 Date: Tuesday 24 June 👤 Monitored by: Jean, CapeNature
- An adult male elephant seal hauled out at Stilbaai. This falls outside our area, so we contacted Jean at CapeNature, who confirmed they were monitoring him.
- He moved on after two days.
🦭 Status: Departed after two days. No intervention required.
One Health Marine Mammal Workshop, Cape Town
📍 Location: Cape Town 📅 Date: Thursday 25 to Friday 26 June 👤 Attendees: Ursula, Val (Manco)
- Two Manco members, Ursula and Val, attended the One Health Marine Mammal Workshop in Cape Town.
- Meeting 50 delegates from across South Africa, Brazil, Namibia and the USA was an incredible experience. We are hugely indebted to Tess Gridley from Sea Search for the invitation and accommodation.
- It was inspiring, pro-active and creative, and an opportunity to meet a diverse community of like-minded delegates.
💙 Status: Greatly encouraged to keep our flag flying and march on.
AGM & Rescue Call: Elephant Seal, Hartenbos
📍 Location: Hartenbos 📅 Date: Saturday 27 June 👤 Responders: Mario, Louis, Annelize
- Our AGM was scheduled for 14:00. Ursula and Val had a trying trip back from Cape Town, with pea-soup fog all the way up to Botrivier.
- On the way, a rescue call came in reporting an elephant seal at Hartenbos: the same bull from Stilbaai had headed up the coast.
- Mario, Louis and Annelize headed down to find that people had harassed him to such an extent that he had taken off again. Perhaps he’ll pop up in Gqeberha to get some TLC from Dr Greg Hofmeyr!
🦭 Status: Departed due to harassment. A reminder to keep your distance and give hauled-out seals the space they need.
Incident: Mystery Bird, Glentana Beach
📍 Location: Glentana Beach 📅 Date: Sunday 28 June (today) 👤 In the care of: Dr Frans, Sr Stephanie (HAH)
- A call of a different nature: an angler had found a “strange” bird on Glentana beach, brightly coloured, so probably not a marine bird.
- After collecting it, we posted a picture on the Great Brak Conservancy group, who have birdwatching members. It was ID’d as an African swamphen (purple gallinule). Who knows how it got there!
🐦 Status: Safely in the care of Dr Frans and Sr Stephanie at HAH.
Our week has been busy, exhilarating and challenging. Catch up with all our news on our FB page later this week.
Till next Sunday, go well. 🐾