Elephant seal who shocked Gordon’s Bay residents safely returned to sea

CAPE TOWN - The elephant seal who gave Gordon’s Bay residents a shock has been safely returned to sea thanks to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and key players.   

The seal was found roaming the streets early on Tuesday morning, nearly a kilometre inland.  

ALSO READ: WATCH: Elephant seal holds up traffic in Gordon's Bay

The SPCA’s Belinda Abraham said it's a rare sight for an elephant seal to be seen in South Africa, though lone young males do make a pitstop during moulting periods, where they shed their skin on land.

Abraham went on to say that rescue efforts took longer than they had expected.  

“We never could have imagined that an incoming call received at 6:20 am in the morning would lead to an almost nine-hour rescue effort, but when an almost one-tonne elephant seal finds himself stranded in land, there's only one thing you can do - you drop everything and step in to help.”  

The SPCA explained that though the seal was unharmed, his urban pitstop posed a risk to residents and himself.  

“The road was busy, the public was very understandably curious and most importantly, there was no safe space to sedate him nearby, so we had to hold the line and keep him calm while waiting for the right support to arrive and sedation took time as well as it should because with a wild animal of this size, you have to be very careful.”  

She added that moving the seal of this size was an even bigger challenge.  

“Once he was sedated, came the challenge of getting him in the City of Cape Town's marines unit's large game capture trailer and it really did take a village and then some, but thanks to every partner and every team member on site, we got him home and seeing him return to the sea that made every single minute worth it.”