[Image: Wikimedia Commons]
A rabies outbreak is tearing through South Africa’s Cape fur seal population, and there’s little chance of it stopping on its own.
State veterinarian Dr Lesley van Helden from the Western Cape Agriculture Department warns that the virus has now become endemic in the seal population and is maintaining itself.
This isn’t just another wildlife scare – it is the first time rabies has gone marine.
“It’s the first outbreak in a marine mammal. We do have rabies in various kinds of mammals that live on land, but this is the first time it’s moved into the sea. It has become endemic in the Cape fur seal population, so that means wherever Cape fur seals occur along the coast, there’s the potential of the case of rabies being in one of them,” she said via EWN.
Since 2021, divers, surfers, and beachgoers have been reporting aggressive seal encounters. In 2024, the culprit was confirmed to be the viral nervous system disease, rabies. Before this, the only recorded rabid seal was a single case in Norway in 1980. This time, it’s different. It’s widespread and it might not go anywhere without major intervention.
A groundbreaking Cape Town-made documentary, Out of the Blue, premiered on 11 January 2025, unravels the shocking story of how rabies jumped from jackals to seals and what this could mean for marine ecosystems, tourism, and even Antarctica, per Daily Maverick. If the virus spreads beyond South Africa, the consequences could be catastrophic.
It is safe to say that the world is watching as South Africa scrambles to contain the outbreak. If rabies gains a foothold in other marine species, it could trigger a ripple effect with unpredictable consequences.
Directed by Floris Tils, Out of the Blue pulls back the curtain on how these once-curious and playful creatures have turned aggressive- and what can still be done to stop this crisis before it spirals out of control.
One thing is clear: the ocean will never be the same if we don’t act now.
“I want the national government to acknowledge this… More funding is necessary to do research, to find out what’s happening and to answer the questions that can’t be answered right now,” he Tils.
Researchers reckon that the cause of rabies in the Cape Coast seals was transmission from the black-backed jackal, of which there are colonies in Namibia, Melbourne, and South Africa. The black-backed jackal overlaps in range with the seal colonies, so you have jackals moving through the colonies, and it’s very possible that was where it came from.
“There is still a lot to learn on this, and we’re very much at the beginning of the stages of understanding rabies in Cape fur seals… We are still very much at the beginning of trying to understand how it’s transmitted, what the rates (of transmission) are, does the fact that they live in water make a difference… It’s a very different environment to how terrestrial animals are living and transmitting rabies. There’s a lot of unknowns,” said Tess Gridley, founding director of Sea Search, an NGO specialising in marine mammal research.
For anyone thinking about getting too close, here’s a hard rule: don’t, or you might need to rush to the doc to get a rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.
“If for some reason you do get bitten or scratched or any sort of wound from a seal, please go immediately to your nearest health facility and they can provide a treatment that can prevent you from developing rabies,” Dr van Helden said.
“And then something else that everyone can do that’s really important is make sure that their dogs and cats are vaccinated, and that vaccination is maintained.”
For more questions and answers on this ongoing crisis, head over here.
[Sources: EWN & Daily Maverick]
