These are the shocking images of a dead grey seal that drowned after it had become tangled is a mass of plastic waste and ghost fishing gear.
The British Divers Marine Life Rescue unit were called out by concerned members of the public who spotted the mammal off the coast near Boscatle, Cornwall, earlier this month.
Members of the public spotted the struggling seal on May 11, but the rescue operation could not launch until the following morning due to the sea conditions.
This seal, pictured, was trapped by 35kg of ghost fishing nets before its body was washed ashore on Trebarwith Strand in Cornwall
A post mortem of the seal’s body found it would have taken the animal three weeks to die
The fishing net cut through the seal’s neck slicing through its flesh down through to its muscle
A team of volunteers went out searching for the seal on May 11, but were unable to find it as it had been washed away on the tide.
However, on May 27 the seal was found washed ashore a few miles down the coast at Trebarwith Strand.
The BDMLR were involved in the search along with the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust.
Later, the BDMLR were joined by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network (CWTMSN).
The volunteers took photographs of the stranded seal who suffered terrible injuries as a result of its efforts to free itself from the fishing gear and plastic rubbish.
BDMLR’s North Cornwall Assistant Coordinator Michelle Robinson-Clement, who was part of the original search team, said: ‘This animal suffered a prolonged, tortured death, there is no question of that. He is one of the worst cases of entanglement we have seen anywhere in the world due to the extreme nature of his injuries. The material that was taken off him weighed 35kg – he wouldn’t have been able to swim or dive.’
His body was retrieved by CWTMSN volunteers the following day and taken for a post-mortem examination at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus in Penryn.
Pathologist James Barnett claimed the animal would not have been able to raise its own head or even feed
The seal, pictured, got trapped in this 35kg length of plastic fishing net
Animal welfare experts said the seal, pictured, would have died in agony
The examination showed the net caused a massive wound around the seal’s neck which cut in as far as the mammal’s muscles.
Pathologist James Barnett claimed the animal would not have been able to raise its own head or even feed.
He believes the animal would have taken at least three weeks to die.
Mr Barnett said: ‘This is probably the most serious net-related injury I have seen in 27 years of working with seals and the level of suffering this animal must have gone through is truly appalling.’
Sue Sayer, Chairwoman of the CSGRT said: ‘For all our amazing wildlife and coastlines in Cornwall, we actually have the second highest rate of entanglement of any of the true seal species in the world, at up to 4 per cent of the animals we record in our survey work – in 2017 and 2018 we recorded around 100 different seals caught in marine litter in each year.
A dead hmpback whale was washed ashore at Scrabster, Caithness this morning
The giant mammal had appeared to have become entangled on a rope and an orange buoy
It is believed the rope could have led to the giant mammal’s agonising death
One environmentalist said: ‘Entangled whales can spend days, sometimes weeks, constrained by these lines and unable to properly move’
‘The really sad fact is that many of them, like this poor animal here, are very often in places where they are totally inaccessible for rescuers to reach them, and frequently move between locations across the English Channel and Celtic Sea, which makes them difficult to track.’
Niki Clear of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust added: ‘Sadly this is just one of the hundreds of thousands of marine mammals that are killed as a result of entanglement in marine litter every year around the world and this case shows how sickening a sight it really is for those of us who have to deal with this on a regular basis.
‘However, incidents like this give us a chance to make a public call for action about the state of our oceans and what anyone can do to help reduce or prevent pollution from getting into the environment and killing more of our wildlife.
‘Although it is an incredibly upsetting case, we needed to tell this animal’s story to make sure it didn’t suffer and die for nothing to be done about it.’
Meanwhile, a dead whale was spotted entangled in a rope attached to an orange buoy in Scrabster, Caithness.
The whale was spotted on Wednesday before its body came ashore this morning.
No cause of death has been established but signs suggested it had been entangled in rope before it died.
In April a humpback whale carcass measuring nine metres long washed up on a beach in East Lothian.
The juvenile whale, which was found on the beach at John Muir Country Park, Dunbar, East Lothian, had also become entangled in ropes.
One shocked environmentalist on Facebook said: ‘Although a necropsy is yet to be performed, it is very likely that this humpback did die from entanglement.
‘Entangled whales can spend days, sometimes weeks, constrained by these lines and unable to properly move.
‘They become slower and weaker, and eventually die what must be an agonising death.’