Pelican Point peninsula

                        Pelican Point peninsula

Pelican Point peninsula, in Namibia, Southern Africa, is a very popular tourist destination. Each year over 1 million visitors flock to Namibia and go to see the "colony of seals and school of dolphins."

But a story by Reuters staff, published on Wednesday October 14, 2020 said "Thousands of dead seal pups have washed ashore on the coast of Namibia." The animals were found at Pelican Point peninsula.

Photographs taken by Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN) show "the coast dotted with more than 5,000 dead seal pups." The seal pups were born prematurely and they died immediately OCN explained.

But why?

An article by Albertina Nakale in New Era Live publication, said Namibia is a tourist destination of choice for many foreign visitors. In 2018, for example, over 1.5 million visited the country, more than the 1.49 million who came in 2017.

 

The country is known for its ecotourism with its extensive wildlife. The largest number of tourists came from Angola, South Africa, Zambia, Germany, Zimbabwe, Botswana, France, United Kingdom, United States,and the Netherlands.

But back to the dead seal pups. OCN has said that every year a few female seals "abort their foetus when they felt there was not enough food available."  But it has never happened on such a scale! In 1994 starvation led to the loss of about 1/3 of the seal population at Pelican Point.

"Starvation is the most probable cause as fish, the seals' main source of food have moved from Pelican Point," the OCN said.

But why have the fish moved?

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