ABOUT 120 international media organisations have released a wave of negative reports on Namibia following the story about the arrest of two journalists filming seal clubbing at the Cape Cross Seal Colony in Walvis Bay last week.

Some of the reports imply that thousands of tourists who visit and film seals at the Cape Cross especially from July to November every year are at risk of arrest.
“Then every tourist who visits and films seals at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve or any of the other 14 more remote seal colonies in Namibia, is guilty of the same offence, and can expect to be assaulted, punched in the face, locked up have their camera’s stolen and charged with a jail sentence,” one of the reports said.
Seal Alert’s Francois Hugo told Informanté from the Cape that the seal cull doesn’t benefit the fisheries, because nursing seals are being clubbed.
He said the whole barbaric practice must be stopped.
Hugo said Namibia nursing seal cull is the cruellest slaughter on earth, and that the Cape Fur Seal is an endangered species, insisting that Namibia is seen as a country which beats its animals to death.
“This is the message going to be shown around the world, and a sorry sight for a country which generates millions each year through its tourist industry - ironically the seals are one of the big tourist attractions.
Hugo referred to two “white” sealing concession holders who pocketed millions from the clubbing trade, while their black counterparts earned a pittance and were living in cardboard shacks in the desert.
“I’ve been there I know, there is a gross injustice somewhere,” Hugo fumed, adding that he plans to buy the sealing rights and stop this slaughter, in the same manner he had led international ban on the trade of seal products from Namibia.
Hugo also wants to hold another meeting in Namibia with the Minister of Fisheries and show in two pages that the seal cull is not sustainable and is grossly outdated, and present them with some alternatives.
He also said there is going to be a full investigation into the arrest of the two international film makers who were assaulted and forced to plead guilty out of fear.
“The charges were bogus – and the world is questioning what the Government is trying to hide by resorting to violence when someone is seen carrying a camera at the Cape Cross seal colony.”
But Chief Inspector, Charles Sibolile, who arrested the men under the Namibian Marine Resources Act, was quoted saying, “The Cape Cross area is closed during the culling season and any entry is prohibited unless the Minister of Fisheries gives permission.”
Hugo said this incident has caused an international public relations nightmare that will cost the tourism industry millions of Namibian dollars and blatantly goes against “freedom of the press”.
“The Namibian sealing and travel industry must realise that Francois Hugo of Seal Alert-SA is simply not going to go away, until the Cape fur seal hunt has been officially stopped”.