Park Rangers at Vatnajökull National Park have been unable to locate a seal in distress that was spotted on Thursday. The animal was tangled in a nylon or plastic net, causing him obvious distress and discomfort.
After the animal was spotted on Thursday lying on an ice float in the lagoon a veterinarian with the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority determined the animal was in too bad a shape to be rescued, instructing Police to put the animal down. However, when Park Rangers attempted to locate the animal it was nowhere to be found. The rangers have been on the lookout for the seal since Thursday, but according to the local news site Vísir the animal has not been spotted since Thursday.
A Maltese traveler, Adrian Cardona, captured several photos of the animal when he visited the lagoon on Thursday. Cordona told Iceland Insider that he only noticed the animal was tangled in a net after he returned home from his visit to Iceland:
When I came back to my country and uploaded photos I noticed that one of the seals I had photographed has some sort of fishing line entangled around its neck and it is cutting into its flesh.
Cordona tried to contact the authorities and locals to ask for help, without any luck:
I put a post in an icelandic FB group to try and ask who I could contact to try and get some help to it, but I was thrown out of the group for some reason. Together with some other members we contacted the Skaftafell National Park agency and they replied that they will try and keep a lookout for it. Now it seems that some argument has arisen about it because the local authority wants to shoot it while the local police said that they have tranquilliser guns and are willing to try and catch it alive and try and save it.
Local animal rights activists are equally dismayed by the story, saying it is unacceptable that the only solution offered by the authorities to cases like this is to put the animal down. Vala Árnadóttir, an animal rights activist told Vísir that she had contacted a seal rescue society in North America for advice on cases like this. They told her that seals in far worse shape had been rescued and nursed back to full health: It's very sad that the first reaction is always to put injured animals down. There should be a shelter of some sort, where injured wild animals like this can be nursed back to health.
We at Iceland Insider sincerely hope that the seal at Jökulsárlón can be rescued.
Park Rangers at Vatnajökull National Park have been unable to locate a seal in distress that was spotted on Thursday. The animal was tangled in a nylon or plastic net, causing him obvious distress and discomfort.
After the animal was spotted on Thursday lying on an ice float in the lagoon a veterinarian with the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority determined the animal was in too bad a shape to be rescued, instructing Police to put the animal down. However, when Park Rangers attempted to locate the animal it was nowhere to be found. The rangers have been on the lookout for the seal since Thursday, but according to the local news site Vísir the animal has not been spotted since Thursday.
A Maltese traveler, Adrian Cardona, captured several photos of the animal when he visited the lagoon on Thursday. Cordona told Iceland Insider that he only noticed the animal was tangled in a net after he returned home from his visit to Iceland:
When I came back to my country and uploaded photos I noticed that one of the seals I had photographed has some sort of fishing line entangled around its neck and it is cutting into its flesh.
Cordona tried to contact the authorities and locals to ask for help, without any luck:
I put a post in an icelandic FB group to try and ask who I could contact to try and get some help to it, but I was thrown out of the group for some reason. Together with some other members we contacted the Skaftafell National Park agency and they replied that they will try and keep a lookout for it. Now it seems that some argument has arisen about it because the local authority wants to shoot it while the local police said that they have tranquilliser guns and are willing to try and catch it alive and try and save it.
Local animal rights activists are equally dismayed by the story, saying it is unacceptable that the only solution offered by the authorities to cases like this is to put the animal down. Vala Árnadóttir, an animal rights activist told Vísir that she had contacted a seal rescue society in North America for advice on cases like this. They told her that seals in far worse shape had been rescued and nursed back to full health: It's very sad that the first reaction is always to put injured animals down. There should be a shelter of some sort, where injured wild animals like this can be nursed back to health.
We at Iceland Insider sincerely hope that the seal at Jökulsárlón can be rescued.
