Dolphin hero now rescues tangled seals

● Three years ago, Naude Dreyer, below, became an overnight internet sensation when he picked up a stranded dolphin on a Walvis Bay beach and carried it back into the ocean.

Within a day, a video of his Paaltjies Beach rescue had racked up 2-million views on the Facebook page of his business, Pelican Point Kayaking, and in the days that followed his exploit was reported on news websites around the world.

Now it’s happening again, but this time the beneficiaries of Dreyer’s love of wildlife are seals with nylon fishing nets wrapped around their necks.

The 36-year-old tour guide has rescued more than 600 seals from dangerous trash, and in the latest video — on YouTube — he catches a seal with strands of nylon around its neck. Then, as he holds the seal’s head still with one hand, he cuts the nylon free with scissors. With a livid red mark around its neck where the strands had cut into its skin, the seal then races back into the ocean.

In some cases, said Naude, the injuries seals suffered were horrific. “These are gill nets. Completely illegal in Namibia. It’s the worst thing in the ocean,” he said. “It catches anything — turtles, fish, dolphins. Anything that swims through here will die.”

Gill nets are vertical panels of netting that hang from a line suspended by floats.

In 2016, Dreyer was driving on the beach with a client when he found a young Benguela dolphin on the sand. “He was moving a bit and I immediately knew he was alive ... and stopped to help him out,” Dreyer said at the time. “I was just doing ... the right thing to do. I couldn’t leave him there.”

He gave his camera to the client, picked up the dolphin and waded into the surf. Once the dolphin had steadied itself in the water it “took off like a bullet”, he said.