Seals don’t wear baseball caps. At least not on purpose, but seals are curious creatures, so every now and then a seal will accidentally find some sort of discarded material, poke around in it and, if they’re unlucky, get stuck in it. That’s exactly what happened to a seal in Namibia, just a stone’s throw from the ridiculous wave Skeleton Bay.
“It’s not the first time we’ve had to cut a baseball cap out of a seal’s neck,” the team wrote Ocean Conservation Namibia. “Various manufacturers use a whole range of fabrics to make their caps. They can be natural fabrics such as cotton or wool, or synthetic materials such as polyamide or any other material that can be molded into the desired shape.”
Even if those manufacturers use material that breaks down over time, seals simply don’t have the time to wait for that. And since they don’t have fingers or arms for that matter, it’s impossible to get a piece of whatever is stuck on them (like a HAZMAT suit) to come off.
“Let this rescue video be a reminder to us all,” Ocean Conservation Namibia ended, “that textiles also contribute to ocean waste and that marine animals are always the undeserved victims of litter.”
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