{"id":40091783,"date":"2022-05-25T15:37:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T14:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadialogueocean.net\/?post_type=photo_story&p=91783"},"modified":"2022-05-25T15:37:08","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T14:37:08","slug":"whats-killing-south-africas-seals","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/uncategorized\/whats-killing-south-africas-seals\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s killing South Africa\u2019s seals?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From a distance, a seal appears to be napping on the rust-coloured rocks; members of its small colony grunt at one another as sea spray brings some respite from the searing midsummer heat. But on closer inspection, one of the seal\u2019s eyes is open and pointing vacantly at the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tess Gridley bends over the dead animal, and instructs her university students and volunteers to check for parasites. Fewer bugs means a fresher carcass, which is what these researchers are looking for. Binoculars pressed to her face, Gridley scans the rocky outcrop and finds five more bodies, which the students line up on the rocks in a funereal procession. \u201cA colony of this size, you wouldn\u2019t expect to see so many freshly dead,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"seal<\/div>
A young Cape fur seal lies dead on the rocky coast of South Africa\u2019s Western Cape. The species has suffered a wave of mysterious deaths since September last year, with scientists struggling to discover the causes. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Gridley and her team have travelled to this stretch of Western Cape province to investigate why thousands of Cape fur seals<\/a> have been washing up along South Africa\u2019s shores. When a wave of deaths started in September 2021, Gridley, a behavioural biologist and director of research organisation SeaSearch, paused her work on whale and dolphin acoustics to help deal with the unfolding crisis. For months she has walked miles of coastline, picking through seal bodies, searching for clues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, with jars of formalin at the ready, and gloved up to the elbows, she and her team prepare to add six more seals to their evidence base. Slicing into the first animal, they peel back the blubber and muscle. In the stench and heat, they take samples of lungs, liver, stomach, heart. A bright crimson stream makes its way from the body back to the sea. Gridley, meanwhile, is focused on an especially grim task: extracting the brain. \u201cWhere\u2019s that axe?\u201d she asks. Somebody hands it to her. Gripping the handle, she steadies herself, then severs the seal\u2019s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"person<\/div>
A member of marine biologist Tess Gridley\u2019s team drags a deceased seal to the shore, one of six found in a single location (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The team collect a liver sample of one of the dead seals, adding to a collection from about 60 seals being used to investigate the cause of their deaths (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

An ecosystem under stress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is renowned for its sea life. Thousands of visitors come every year to watch whales, dive with great whites, and even swim with seals in the country\u2019s rich kelp forests. But when scores of seal foetuses, juveniles and adults began washing up last year on Western Cape beaches, it seemed an ominous sign of a marine ecosystem under stress, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the lucrative tourism economy on which many depend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seal die-offs aren\u2019t new: the 2-million-strong Cape fur population experiences natural cycles of boom and bust, and seal pups are often swept out to sea during the windy breeding season. Pregnant females also occasionally abort foetuses<\/a>, which wash up on the shore. But this time, the proportion of dead adults was striking. \u201cWhile it\u2019s normal for a portion of the population to die during the breeding period, this was affecting other age groups that aren\u2019t usually affected. I think that\u2019s what sounded the alarm bells,\u201d says Mduduzi Seakamela, a marine scientist at the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) who monitors populations of sea animals including seals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"young<\/div>
A rescued baby seal at the Hout Bay Seal Rescue Centre, near Cape Town (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A seal with a red tag on its flipper, indicating it has been rescued and later returned to the wild, swims in the waters next to the centre (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Keeper Amos Lepenga takes a break to watch the wild seals swim (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Across all age groups, most beached seals also appeared to be undernourished. \u201cI can honestly say last year was the worst thing I have ever seen,\u201d says Kim Krynauw, operational director of the Hout Bay Seal Rescue Centre. Based 20km from Cape Town, the centre has for months been rehabilitating beached animals, nursing hungry seals back from the brink with a formula rich in electrolytes. Many rescued animals haven\u2019t been so lucky. \u201cWhat came back in our necropsies was low body fat, no food at all in their bodies \u2013 starvation,\u201d Krynauw says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also evidence that some animals are having seizures before they die, suggesting disease rather than lack of prey might underpin the die-off. And in the context of a marine ecosystem that\u2019s already showing signs of stress from climate change, overfishing and pollution, researchers are starting to wonder whether the seal deaths are the latest symptom of a larger decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meal time for the baby seals starts with fish in a blender. Many of the rescued animals arrive at the centre badly undernourished. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Amos Lepenga pours the blended mixture, enriched with electrolytes, into a feeding bottle (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"three<\/div>
Keeper Abel Banda feeds the baby seals using a funnel and tube (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The acid-poisoning theory <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gridley remembers the week in early September 2021 when this unusual pattern of deaths began. Sea Search\u2019s Namibian arm started reporting mass deaths, and Gridley swiftly headed to the Cape\u2019s West Coast, a region characterised by white-sand beaches, fishing villages and seal colonies. \u201cOn the high tide we had tens of aborted pups coming in,\u201d Gridley recalls. By October, the numbers had risen. The DFFE, SeaSearch and other NGOs including the SPCA and Hout Bay Seal Rescue Centre began working together to document the dead. But there was limited capacity to analyse carcasses. Gridley decided to leverage Sea Search\u2019s resources to investigate more systematically: \u201cThe only reason we\u2019ve really taken a lead on this, is that nobody else has.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, under the instruction of two veterinary scientists, Gridley and team have learned how to tweeze out seal whiskers (handy for detecting pollutants in the water); clip out segments of seal fin (to decipher genetics) and extract brains (which may have lesions indicating disease). Late morning on that hot January day, Gridley finally opens the seal\u2019s skull with a nauseating crack, and prises out the brain. This body will add to about 60 sample sets gathered so far, for testing various theories on what is causing the wave of deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gridley and her team extract a whisker from a dead seal \u2013 useful for detecting pollutants (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The brain, one of the hardest parts to extract, can indicate if the animal suffered from any diseases (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

One theory is uppermost in researchers\u2019 minds. Preliminary analysis shows many animals have oedema on the lungs, a type of swelling suggesting they drowned. This hints at seizures, says Luca Mendes, a veterinarian from the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town who has been assisting Gridley, which may indicate poisoning by a neurotoxin called domoic acid, a by-product of algal blooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDomoic acid binds to neurons in the brain, and it causes [animals] to have seizures and die,\u201d says Frances Gulland, a veterinary scientist at the Wildlife Health Center, University of California, Davis. She was part of a team that first identified domoic acid poisoning in California<\/a> in 1998, where thousands of sea lions died over the course of just a few weeks. \u201cIt was a mystery at the time,\u201d she says. Since then, outbreaks have been identified every few years in the state, and become a major health concern because the acid also accumulates in commonly consumed fish and shellfish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gridley is curious about whether the phenomenon has come to South Africa, and what it could mean for wildlife as well as people. Alongside causing seizures, vomiting and behavioural change in seals, domoic acid can also cross the placental barrier, which might explain the high volume of aborted foetuses. It could also account for sudden deaths of seemingly healthy animals \u2013 such as the recent die-off<\/a> of roughly 1,000 Cape fur seals in Namibia, most of which were well-nourished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"view<\/div>
Cormorants fly across the glassy waters of Steenberg\u2019s Cove in St Helena Bay, 130km north of Cape Town. One possible cause of the seal die-off is toxins from algal blooms, which are more frequent along this coast. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To find out, Gridley is working with algae specialist Grant Pitcher, from the DFFE: he\u2019s on the trail of the toxic algae family that produces domoic acid, Pseudo-nitzschia<\/em>. \u201cThe West Coast is subject to a higher frequency of harmful algae,\u201d Pitcher notes, because of the regional Benguela current that fuels its nutrient-rich upwellings \u2013 the same system that supports the abundant fish which the seals consume. So far, he\u2019s identified two types of Pseudo-nitzschia<\/em> that make domoic acid \u2013 although, in much smaller concentrations than the outbreak that drove the California sea lion die-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ultimate proof will be in the seals\u2019 bodies: domoic acid presents in stomach juices, faeces and urine. But it also leaves the system rapidly, which is why finding freshly dead animals is such a boon. A case in point is when a few animals were submitted to the South African state vet for domoic acid testing in late 2021. The results were negative but they were treated as inconclusive because the animals had reached the vet a while after death, possibly compromising the samples, Seakamela explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gridley hopes to soon carry out a more comprehensive analysis on the samples she\u2019s gathered, but tests to identify the acid are very expensive, which has stalled her progress. For now, the samples lie in wait, split between her office freezer and the Two Oceans Aquarium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Gridley, pinning down domoic acid as an acute cause of these deaths would at least explain the carnage of recent months. \u201cNobody\u2019s tested for it properly [in South Africa], and therefore nobody\u2019s found it. So I\u2019m hoping that we can be the first people to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gridley and a team member examine the stomach of a dead seal, which may have died from a lack of food. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Gridley and her team pack their samples in an ice box for transportation back to Cape Town, where they will await testing for domoic acid poisoning in her office freezer (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unpredictable prey <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, it\u2019s been impossible to ignore the deprived condition of so many of the sampled seals, Mendes says. \u201cI don\u2019t think I saw one animal that had a healthy level of fat. You don\u2019t just go from two centimetres of fat to two millimetres overnight; that\u2019s a gradual process that might suggest a chronic issue at sea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hunger factor is significant because it\u2019s evident in other marine species, too. In late January, at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) in Cape Town, 130 African penguin eggs were lined up neatly in an orange-lit incubation room. They had all been abandoned by their parents. SANCCOB researchers think it might come down to availability of prey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"person<\/div>
A volunteer at SANCCOB prepares to feed a young Cape gannet, one of several endangered species being looked after by the foundation (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A baby gull sits under the warmth of a heat lamp. With the availability of food increasingly unpredictable, many chicks end up being abandoned by their parents. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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An African penguin chick waits patiently to be hand fed by a SANCCOB volunteer (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean) <\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The females were not supposed to lay until March, but for the past few years, the endangered species hasn\u2019t been sticking to the schedule. Researchers think that when stocks of sardines and anchovy, the birds\u2019 primary prey, are unpredictable or scarce, penguins breed opportunistically. \u201cIt seems penguins think \u2018Oh there\u2019s fish, let\u2019s quickly lay an egg!\u2019 And then they lay at random times of the year,\u201d explains Katta Ludynia, research manager at SANCCOB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, this means birds breed during high summer, when they\u2019re more likely to get heat-stressed and have to abandon their offspring. It\u2019s a trend repeated by other endangered birds, including Cape cormorants and Cape gannets: in January 2021, SANCCOB rescued 2,000 cormorant chicks whose parents had taken flight, \u201cprobably due to heat and mostly likely linked to lack of fish,\u201d says Ludynia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s thought that declining fish stocks are behind this, combined with climate change shifting where and when fish are available. Anecdotally, some fishers have noticed certain fish species arriving at unusual times in the season, and in areas they\u2019d not been caught before, says Christian Adams, a small-scale fisher based in the West Coast town of St Helena Bay. \u201cThat was very unnatural for us,\u201d he says.Compounding the stress, research shows that seabirds are also having to compete with commercial fishing boats for the unpredictable stock \u2013 which in the case of African penguins influences their breeding success<\/a> and survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"people<\/div>
Small-scale fisher Christian Adams (centre) sets off on a fishing trip from St Helena Bay, accompanied by his friend Anthony Stofberg and a boy from the neighbourhood (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Adams says he\u2019s been finding species of fish in areas he\u2019s never seen them before during the summer months (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The small catch of Cape bream Adams brought home. The species is not unusual for the season, but Adams was surprised to also be catching large numbers in November and December last year. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The birds that come to the rescue centre are also increasingly underweight, says SANCCOB veterinarian David Roberts. \u201cWe get skinny penguins and other seabirds, or we get birds that were unable to go through their normal moult,\u201d he says. Roberts explains that skipping a moult suggests a bird hadn\u2019t eaten enough to run the risk of waiting weeks onshore while their new waterproof feathers come in. \u201cI can easily say that\u2019s a trend and it\u2019s definitely unnatural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A multi-stranded crisis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There may be other food-related explanations for the die-off that hint at a wider ecosystem in flux. Emaciated dead seals might be explained by overpopulated colonies, possibly enabled by the decline of predatory great white sharks<\/a>, another mystery that researchers are still trying to unpick. With growing numbers and limited colony space, it\u2019s possible that yearlings and juveniles are being turfed off the rocks into the water, where, unable to fend for themselves, they starve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"seal<\/div>
Another reason for the seal deaths may be overcrowded colonies, perhaps caused by the also-unexplained decline of the great white shark in South African waters. But Two Oceans Aquarium veterinarian Luca Mendes thinks a compound of different factors are most likely to blame. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There may be further clues from California, where in 1998 changes to the Eastern Boundary Upwelling System \u2013 a current similar to South Africa\u2019s Benguela \u2013 dramatically shifted the prey base and caused food shortages for sea lions. A suite of other factors, such as chemical pollution, and agricultural run-off, could also be interacting with prey, or changing how seals feed. \u201cPotentially all of those factors combined open a door, meaning something like a harmful algal bloom can flourish and affect marine organisms,\u201d says Gridley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five months on and several thousand corpses later, huge questions remain over the deaths of one of South Africa\u2019s most charismatic marine species. The instinct when a crisis hits is to search for one answer, says Mendes. But he believes that ultimately, finding the causes behind the seal die-offs will require a multidisciplinary, ecosystem-level approach that considers toxins, pollution, climate change and fishing all together, as potential drivers of species decline. \u201cIf anything, this whole [die-off] highlights just how little we truly understand about the ocean, or the dynamics under the water,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Gridley after a long day collecting samples. Since February, seal deaths have started to taper off, but she continues her work to decipher the cause, and hopes her findings will help if there are future die-offs. (Image: Barry Christianson<\/a> \/ China Dialogue Ocean)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

After a long day up the West Coast and with another necropsy under her belt, Gridley hopes she\u2019s getting closer to understanding the seals\u2019 plight. Seal blood cleansed from her arms and face, she opens up the freezer in her office and takes in the accumulated work of the previous months \u2013 each frozen sample representing a lost seal, each one an environmental puzzle that she hopes to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barry Christianson contributed reporting to this article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of emaciated seals have been washing up along the Cape coast. With other species showing similar signs of stress, researchers are looking to the wider ecosystem for answers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":40091832,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[1],"tags":[511,523,40027778],"country":[],"class_list":["post-40091783","photo_story","type-photo_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biodiversity","tag-conservation","tag-marine-protection"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat\u2019s killing South Africa\u2019s seals?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thousands of emaciated seals are washing up along the Cape coast. 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