Arctocephalus pusillus
The Cape fur seal Arctocephalus pusillus occurs along the southern African coast between Algoa Bay and southern Angola and is harvested in Namibia. Although the harvest is low compared to earlier times (the fishery is centuries old), seals have been included in this overview because they are major top-predators in the Benguela, whose dynamics have been strongly affected by fluctuations in a number of the major fish resources of the region, making them important visible indicators of environmental change.
Cape Fur Seals seen at Cape Cross Seal Reserve, Atlantic Coast of NW Namibia, 100km or so North of Swakopmund. A quarter of a million or so seals sure makes an impression - not least on the ears and nostrils - they honked noisily and stank! Cape Cross has the best known breeding colony of Cape fur seals along the Namib Coast. This appealing species isn't a true seal at all, but an eared seal, which is actually a species of sea lion.
There is an annual commercial hunt of fur seals in Namibia. The 1998 quota was for 35,000 fur seal pups and 5,000 adult males to be killed between August and November, a total increase on the 1997 quota of 10,000 seals. There are currently plans to build a factory complex at Henties Bay which will act as an abattoir, bone meal plant, fat processing plant (with laboratories for the bottling and manufacturing of oils, capsules, creams and cosmetics), tannery, shoe factory, leatherware factory, canning factory, research laboratory, museum and retail sales outlet.
It is believed that the sale of seal genitalia for the aphrodisiac trade will be the most lucrative part of the industry. The companies planning the complex are seeking an increase in the numbers of seals killed each year. In 1994 an estimated 200,000 seals unexpectedly died on the Namibian coast, almost certainly due to to malnutrition and starvation because of a scarcity of fish caused by environmental conditions.
