Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
ONE photographer let a mosquito bite him, another had their camera attacked and slobbered over by a grizzly bear, yet another realised that, in order to get the photo they wanted, they needed to move slowly and wrap up to avoid getting too many (yes, too many) wasp stings. But it was worth it. T he photos at this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum are stunning.
However photographer, Michael Watson, had a completely different experience.
While photographing a group of seals lolling around on the sandbanks of a Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire, he heard the screams of a seal in distress. This seal was apart from the rest. Its cries of distress had alerted two other photographers and they phoned for help.
It became obvious the seal had been entangled in plastic rope since it was a pup and, as it had grown, the netting had sliced into the blubber around its neck.
Help arrived in the form of Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and the Seal Sanctuary. The seal was cut free, treated with pain medicine and released.
Michael says the team were swift and practised – they had done this too many times before. Michael’s photo, which was Highly Commended, shows the entangled seal.
Every year, around 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear such as lines, nets and pots are lost into the oceans.
This discarded gear, is known as “ghost gear”, because of its ability to continue killing wildlife long after the fishing boats have left it behind. It lies quietly in wait, sometimes drifting huge distances, catching unsuspecting marine life.
As holiday time approaches, it’s important to know what to do if, like Michael, we come across marine life caught up in discarded fishing gear or other waste.
Options include phoning the RSPCA emergency line on 0300 1234 999 or going to helpwildlife.co.uk.
In order to prevent such suffering, the Marine Conservation Society (mcsuk.org) have details of how we can all play our part in working for a better-protected ocean by, for example, not leaving litter ourselves, reducing our use of plastic and helping with a beach clean.
Now back to the museum, when you’ve had your fill of the photographic exhibition, you can move down the corridor to the museum’s wildlife garden. Unbelievable though it may be, this tranquil oasis, next to the busy Cromwell Road, is home to a vixen and five fox cubs. There’s also newts, frogs and toads.
There, we can take our own wildlife photos.