News

Seal clubbers 'tried to run over' two journalists

July 19, 2009 Edition 2

Eleanor Momberg

A British and a South African journalist flew out of Namibia two days after being arrested for trespassing on state property while filming the annual seal clubbing near Cape Cross.

Bart Smithers, a South African cameraman, and Jim Wickens, a British journalist, were arrested on Thursday morning after being beaten up by sealers they had filmed herding seal pups, and then beating them to death with sticks.

Smithers said he and Wickens knew before departing for Namibia to film the cull that there existed a chance of being arrested. What they did not expect was sealers trying to run them over with two bakkies on the beach, and sealers turning on them under the direction of sea fisheries officials who had allegedly decided to turn the capture of the men into a "type of kangaroo court".

Wickens and Smithers were beaten up by the mob, suffering several bruises. Their cameras were smashed, memory cards and tapes removed and confiscated.

"We needed to get more close-up shots of the beatings. I wanted something different to what I had already filmed in the seal reserve where the culling is taking place. They smashed the camera, my gear was damaged, my cellphone… was also smashed," said Smithers.

En route to the Henties Bay police station, where the two were held for several hours before being released on bail, a man travelling in another vehicle walked over and punched Wickens, then left.

Smithers said a charge of assault had been laid against the man.

Namibian authorities eventually settled on charging the pair with trespassing in a marine reserve, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail or a Namibian $500 000 fine (R502 000). Wickens and Smithers pleaded guilty in the local magistrate's court on Friday to a lesser charge of entering a restricted area without permission. They were fined Namibian $10 000 each, with half suspended.

Back in South Africa, Smithers said he felt their case was finalised quickly because "the government was eager to get rid of the problem".

While they had lost most of their film footage and photos, they had managed to smuggle one video tape out of the country.

"I was concerned when I left Namibia (yesterday) morning that I could be arrested for working without permission, but they have not imposed any restrictions on me. I will definitely return," he said.

The arrests came four days after the start of the annual seal cull that would see 91 000 seals - 85 000 seal pups and 6 000 seal bulls - being killed as part of the three-year sealing quota put out by the Namibian government, which markets the hunt as a means of reducing its seal population to protect its fish resources.

While the government estimated the seal population to be 650 000, this figure was being disputed by seal campaigners who said the population had decreased considerably in recent years, not only because of the annual seal cull, but also because of disease and starvation.

A two-week delay in the start of the sealing season had resulted from efforts by Seal Alert-SA to halt this year's cull by buying out the contractor purchasing the pelts for his fur business, and actions of the two contractors.

Seal Alert-SA's international appeal to raise the $14.2 million needed for the buy-out had failed, with only a tenth of the required funds being pledged. A request for support by Francois Hugo of Seal Alert to international animal rights bodies, who had earlier indicated their willingness to buy out the Namibian seal industry in order to halt the annual cull, had also fallen on deaf ears.

The seal-culling season ends in Namibia on November 15. Namibia and Canada remain the only two nations to continue seal harvesting.