- Video footage of a seal attacking beachgoers at Clifton Fourth Beach prompted a warning from the city.
- Cape Town’s deputy mayor urged residents and visitors to “keep a safe and respectful distance from these animals.”
- This followed a seal attack on the Strand in 2021 and recent interactions with a Cape Clawless otter in a tidal pool.
The city of Cape Town has urged beachgoers to stay away from marine wildlife after a seal was caught on camera attacking swimmers at Clifton Fourth Beach.
Video footage of the seal attacking bathers on Cape Town’s popular beach was shared widely on social media on Wednesday.
The little seal is seen biting a child in the waves, prompting bathers to come to her rescue. He then swims behind American actress Loulou Taylor, before biting her.
Taylor shared on her Instagram account that she was bitten six times and had to go to the emergency room. She shared with her followers that she was on the mend.
The city’s deputy mayor, Eddie Andrews, encouraged residents and visitors to stay away from marine animals.
“Residents and visitors are encouraged to treat all marine and coastal wildlife with respect and to remove their pets from areas where wildlife may be present.”
The city said it was “aware of a video of a seal at Clifton Fourth Beach.”
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It has issued similar warnings in the past.
Towards the end of 2021, following an incident at Strand Beach where a seal bit a teenager, the City of Cape Town warned against feeding and contact with coastal wildlife.
In November 2022, at the Dalebrook tidal pool, situated between St James Beach and Kalk Bay, the city installed signs reminding visitors to “keep a respectful distance from wildlife”.
This came after “posts circulated on social media platforms, showing visitors cuddling and handling a Cape Clawless otter in the tide pool.”
The Hout Bay Seal Rescue Center issued a statement on Wednesday, in response to widely shared video of the seal attack at Fourth Beach.
The center, which rescues and rehabilitates injured and sick seals, warned that the seals would act aggressively if harassed by bathers.
“As horrible as yesterday’s incident was, I’m not surprised it happened. However, seals are wild and predatory animals,” Dune Spence-Ross, the center’s marketing director, told News24.
“Any predator that is surrounded and harassed like the seal would have reacted the same way, but of course the video doesn’t show the part where the seal is being stressed by a crowd of people surrounding it. Yesterday bathers they were lucky.…he was just a year old about 12 months old, weighing no more than 10kg by the looks of it.
“If it was an adult seal, the headlines would have been very different.”
