South Africa: Tame Seal Sparks Feeding Frenzy

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Cape Argus (Cape Town)

8 August 2008
Posted to the web 4 August 2008

Helen Bamford
Cape Town

Danny Abrahams slices a frozen pilchard in two and pops one half into his mouth.

At his feet a huge seal named Pietie-Boy lifts his head, whiskers flaring in anticipation, then gently takes the fish from Abrahams's mouth, two big yellowing teeth showing.

Tourists at the Hout Bay harbour shout in delight, their cameras flashing.

Abrahams, 46, urges them to contribute to Pietie-Boy's feeding fund - a little plastic container with some coins and a few crumpled notes inside.

"You take the pleasure, put back the pleasure," he bellows at one elderly Japanese tourist who hastily reaches into his pocket for change.

The next moment Abrahams, a former fisherman, leaps onto the seal's back and plants a kiss on his furry head.

"Get on, get on. Don't worry, he won't bite," he says to a man whose wife is so desperate to capture the moment she nearly drops the camera.

Another man tries to persuade his young daughter to climb onto the seal for a picture but she looks terrified.

The seal and Abrahams, or "Blits" as he is known in the harbour - from his school days at the Porter School where he was "fast in sports" - clearly share a bond.

"I've been feeding him for 23 years. He waits for me every day and gets 50kg to 60kg of pilchards a day," he says.

But not everybody approves of their unusual relationship.

Abrahams claims someone from Sea Fisheries took the seal aboard a tuna boat last year and took him to Gansbaai.

"Pietie-Boy was gone for two months and three weeks but then he swam back with two other seals."

He says he is regularly fined by Marine and Coastal Management officials for feeding the seal but he ignores them.

"They've given me six or seven fines of R5 000 each but I tell them I won't pay. They even put signs up saying 'don't feed the seals' but I threw them all in the sea."

But Kalk Bay harbour master Pat Stacey described Abraham's feeding of the seals as "illegal and dangerous".

He said he would erect boards in Kalk Bay and Hout Bay harbours next week warning people not to feed the seals and if Abrahams threw those away, he would land up in jail.

Last month Stacey said he asked Abrahams to stop feeding the seals. "When he refused I used my paintball gun and chased the seals. It stings their hides so they stay away."

Stacey said some of the tourists were horrified, especially because the paint was red and looked like blood.

"They probably thought I was killing the seals, but it is the only way to keep them away," explained Stacey.

He said seals were wild animals and could be unpredictable.

"If it turned round and bit someone, Marine and Coastal Management would be held responsible."

What was most upsetting was that Abrahams fed the seal in front of the sea fisheries inspectors' office, yet they ignored it.

But Abrahams maintains that Pietie-Boy is not dangerous and has never bitten anyone.

"He's very tame, although the other seals don't like him. He sleeps on a dinghy in the harbour by himself every night."

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