'Lucky escape' for seal pup tangled in fishing net

A seal pup had a "lucky escape" after its neck became tangled in a discarded fishing net.

The animal was spotted at a haul-out on St Mary's Island, Whitley Bay, by a volunteer at St Mary's Island Wildlife Conservation Society.

Teams were able to reach the pup, which was a couple of months old, once the tide came in and managed to free it from the net before it could cause it any damage.

A spokeswoman for the North Tyneside-based organisation said discarded fishing equipment, known as ghost gear, can be fatal to seal pups, as netting is hard to break and once trapped they cannot free themselves.

"[The net] cuts into the seal's flesh like a cheese wire," she said.

"It will just keep cutting and cutting as the seal grows and cut right down through its blubber into its muscle, and it will kill it eventually."

The team had to wait for the tide to come in to go to the pup's aid.

The spokeswoman, who was among those who helped free the animal, said it was initially surrounded by other seals and they had to monitor it until the right moment.

She said any disturbance may have caused other seals to jump off higher rocks, with a risk of injury while the tide was low.

"It's always a difficult one having to wait, but this one was lucky in that as the tide came in, it became more isolated from the others and we were able to respond to it."

She said although the pup was young and measured about 3.3ft long (1m), they were "feisty" animals and experience was required to handle them.

"Intervening like this is not something that we do light-heartedly," she said.

"We kind of feel a responsibility when an animal is caught in man-made rubbish, so we do feel we need to intervene then, but the general rule is to give them plenty of space."

St Mary's Island Wildlife Conservation Society regularly deals with seals injured by ghost gear.

"They're very curious animals so anything in the water, they will then investigate and in this case it stuck its head through and got stuck, it is something that happens regularly," the spokeswoman said.

She said toys such as plastic rings used for throwing were also increasingly becoming dangerous for seals.

"Luckily this one hadn't been entangled for very long, so it hadn't started to cut through," the spokeswoman said.

She added generally seals that found themselves entangled require veterinary care until the wound heals.

"In this case we managed to get it off quick enough that it hadn't actually caused any injury, so it could just move off, although it was a bit cross with us."

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