Fish-hook ingestion in seals (Phoca vitulina and Halichoerus grypus): the scale of the problem and a non-invasive method for removing fish-hooks
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Published source details
Osinga N. & t' Hart P. (2006) Fish-hook ingestion in seals (Phoca vitulina and Halichoerus grypus): the scale of the problem and a non-invasive method for removing fish-hooks. Aquatic Mammals, 32, 261-264.
Published source details Osinga N. & t' Hart P. (2006) Fish-hook ingestion in seals (Phoca vitulina and Halichoerus grypus): the scale of the problem and a non-invasive method for removing fish-hooks. Aquatic Mammals, 32, 261-264.
Actions
This study is summarised as evidence for the following.
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Rehabilitate and release injured, sick or weak marine and freshwater mammals Action Link |
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Rehabilitate and release injured, sick or weak marine and freshwater mammals
A study in 1999 on an island in the North Sea, off the Netherlands (Osinga & t'Hart 2006) found that an injured common seal Phoca vitulina that had ingested a fishing hook was successfully rehabilitated and released back into the wild. The fishing hook was successfully removed from the female seal, and she was released back into the wild four months after capture. Survival after release was not reported. The seal was found stranded and in poor condition on the coast of an island on 9 April 1999. An x-ray showed an ingested fishing hook within the seal’s stomach. The seal was fed small bits of loose cotton wool through a tube and given oral rehydration salts. On 30 May 1999, the seal defecated the remains of the hook and the cotton wool. The seal was released back into the wild on 6 August 1999. In 2005, a male common seal that had ingested a fishing hook and given the same treatment was also reported to have survived but the authors did not state whether the seal was successfully released.
(Summarised by: Anna Berthinussen)
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