Victorian rescuers save baby seal after fishing rope found embedded in neck

A dramatic rescue mission has saved an injured baby seal from a painful death after the small marine mammal was found with rope embedded tightly around his neck.

A member of the public raised the alarm after spotting the 10-month-old subantarctic fur seal hiding in rocks on the beachfront at Barwon Heads in Victoria.

Ebony McIntosh, a keeper at Melbourne Zoo’s Marine Response Unit (MRU) answered the call for help and said the little yearling had likely become trapped in netting while foraging in the ocean.

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“The seal was very new to the world and had gone off course from where it was born,” McIntosh said.

“Typically, we don’t find a lot of subantarctic fur seals on our mainland shores. But this little seal had gotten into a bit of trouble.”

McIntosh and her MRU team found and captured the injured seal, believed to be a male, with a small net.

Placing a towel over the animal’s face, they were able to free him from the rope, which was growing tighter as he grew.

“You never want to trust a seal,” McIntosh said. “Even though they look very cute.”

After a few attempted bites from the animal, he was successfully set free to cheers from the rescuers, before heading into the bay.

MRU said the seal’s distinctive scar, “which he will carry for the rest of his life”, has made him easy to spot.

Since the incident, the seal has been glimpsed several times, most recently as he sunned himself at Port Phillip Bay.

“We can see that he’s put on some weight, which means he’s been successfully foraging. He’s still a little far from home, but the bay has calm waters and lots of food,” McIntosh said.

“He’s been making a few silly decisions, like sitting on dog beaches for a little bit too long. But we’re hoping he’s almost out of the bay now and making his way back into the ocean.”

The MRU, Victoria‘s only dedicated marine unit, said they have responded to almost 1000 calls for assistance involving seals, turtles, seabirds and other marine wildlife cases in the past year alone, with a large portion of cases involving animals entangled in fishing materials.