Selso seals a deal for his future
The seal that washed up along the South Coast, Selo, is fattening up for his big release into the ocean again.
MIKE Meyer from Oceans and Coasts (Department of Environmental Affairs), Nico de Bryn (University
of Pretoria) and Greg Hofmeyr from BayWorld, all whom have vast experience in marine mammal management and elephant seals, met with the South African Association for Marine Biological Research chief executive officer, Judy Mann, and the uShaka Sea World Veterinary and Animal Care team to discuss uShaka Marine World’s stranded seal, Selso’s future.
After a great deal of discussion it was decided that the best option for Selso is for him to be released when he achieves his set goal weight.
Due to his compromised condition when he was stranded on a beach on the lower South Coast, uShaka Sea World staff estimated his age at about seven months.
However, Nico de Bryn, who has considerable experience working with elephant seals in the Southern Oceans, confirmed Selso to be about 22 months old and therefore should currently weigh about 180 to 200 kilograms.
Selso weighed about 70kgs when he arrived on 28 June. When the uShaka team watched him crawl onto the scale last week, the arrow hovered between 129 and 130kgs. The team expects Selso to enter a moulting stage quite soon, where his appetite should quieten down and thereafter he should start to feed more
vigorously again.
He is currently eating a total of 12kgs of food a day, which is made up of squid, hake and pilchards and are divided into four equal portions and offered at three hourly intervals between 8am and 5pm.
Selso will be released when he reaches 180kg, or as soon as possible. He will be released at sea, in the Agulhas current, where he will find rich food supplies. He will be tagged with a satellite tag, which will transmit daily data on exactly where he is, and what he is doing.
