This heart-wrenching picture shows a seal tangled up in a net off the British coast.
Environmental conservation charity Marine and Wildlife Rescue and Friends of Horsey Seals went to its aid, and caught the grey seal to remove the netting.
The seal, who has been named Suffolk Punch by RSPCA workers, was caught in a fine, orange net when a visitor to Horsey Gap – a beach where seals live in Norfolk – called the charities to rescue it.
Suffolk Punch was moved to East Winch RSPCA, in Norfolk on Friday, where he will be soaked in a salt bath, medicated and fed for several months.
Jo Mead, supervisor at the RSPCA, said: “We have taken the netting off, he was very angry – but all being well the wound will be cleaned up so we’ll let him settle in and start feeding him fish.”
But she adds, it is still “touch and go” as there main priority is getting his health back to normal.
Dan Goldsmith, chairman of the Marine and Wildlife Rescue, said he has seen an “increase” of seals rescued from entanglement.
He says his teams are having to rescue seals at least “once a month”.
Dan adds: “It is so sad – although I suspect there are more seals out there, and there has always been an issue with rubbish.”
Last year, Horsey volunteers also rescued a seal with frisbee stuck around neck.
The mammal called Frisbee is thought to have swam with the yellow plastic ring cutting into her neck for up to six months.
She was rescued starving to death and has undergone five months of rehabilitation at an RSPCA centre.
Volunteers at Friends of Horsey Seals made several desperate attempts to rescue her after spotting the plastic ring embedded on her neck off Horsey Beach, Norfolk.
Frisbee was nursed back to health with antibiotics, painkillers and steroids for the very deep and infected wound.
She went through four 25kg bags of salts a day as part of her rehabilitation.
