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Marine scientists have explained that dozens of Australian fur seals on Victoria's Phillip Island have recently been saved from serious injury or death from debris in the oceans.

With World Oceans Day being marked on Monday 8th June, Phillip Island Nature Parks revealed the disturbing findings of their seal rescue and marine debris programs.

In just over six months, the Nature Parks have removed over 113kg of debris from Phillip Island’s beaches, ensuring it stays out of the oceans, where it poses a serious risk to the local fur seal colony. The 23,000 individual pieces of debris collected include:

13,470 bits of hard and soft plastics
472 metres of fishing line
713 cigarette butts
601 pieces of food packaging and 537 lids
505 pieces of rope

Nature Parks Marine Scientist Dr Rebecca McIntosh goes out to Seal Rocks every two months with her team to remove debris from around the necks of seals, including pups.

Dr McIntosh advised "we have to do it because the seals can’t remove it themselves ... and it’s a good thing that we do because they wouldn’t survive otherwise."

Dr McIntosh and her team crawl over rocks and seaweed to creep up on the seals and trap them in a large, cone-shaped net, then quickly disentangle the seal from the debris and release them back into the ocean.

The entanglements include fishing line wound around necks, fish hooks and lures caught in seal mouths and even hats caught around necks.

Dr McIntosh added “not all the debris comes from commercial vessels or recreational fishing. A lot of it is washed into the ocean from urban environments."

Explaining the value of World Oceans Day, Dr McIntosh went on to say “World Oceans Day is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our beautiful ocean and think about protecting it.

"It’s vital that we protect our ocean home on World Oceans Day and every other day. That biodiversity is so precious.”

Images: A seal entangled in plastic at Victoria's Seal Rocks (top), Phillip Island Nature Parks Marine Scientist Dr Rebecca McIntosh with entanglement material (middle) and marine debris recovered by the Phillip Island Nature Parks team (below). All images courtesy of Phillip Island Nature Parks.

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