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'Look at the Damage': Wildlife Conservationist Frees Seal From Party Balloon String

Wildlife conservationist Naude Dreyer helped remove the string of a party balloon from the neck of a Cape fur seal in Pelican Point, Namibia, sharing footage of the rescue to YouTube on September 13.

“It’s very tight” Dreyer who works with Ocean Conservation Namibia can be heard saying in the video, which features himself and a fellow conservation worker cutting the string from the seal’s neck after catching it.

“Is it really worth that little thing floating in the sky?” Dreyer asks after removing the string and releasing the seal, “when you look at what the damage could be from something like this.”

“These party favorites are sadly responsible for thousands of sea life deaths every year,” he wrote on YouTube.

Speaking on September 24, Dreyer told Storyful that this was the third seal in the past number of weeks that had been found by Ocean Conservation Namibia with a balloon string around its neck.

According to its website, Ocean Conservation Namibia aims to “put an end to the entanglement of marine wildlife along the Namibian coast.” Credit: Naude Dreyer via Storyful