General News
6 August, 2025
Seal saved in Peterborough
A BABY seal was found on Peterborough’s beach last week with a rope wrapped tightly around its neck and in desperate need of help.
As the co-leader of Beach Patrol 3280-3284 – a group dedicated to cleaning up beaches along the south west coast – Gen Bale said she was shocked to see the seal when she came across it while doing a spontaneous beach clean.
“I normally clean up Killarney Beach,” she said.
“I had the day off and I just thought I’d go over and check out Peterborough to see if there was any plastic washed up.”
It was lucky Ms Bale decided to go when she did, because right at the far end of the beach, she found the seal, wrapped up tightly by a rope.
“I just happened to see the seal – I didn’t even notice the rope at first,” she said.
“Because it was so still I thought it was dead.
“As I got closer I noticed the rope around its neck.
“It was a bit of a shock.”
Mrs Bale said she called the other co-leader of Beach Patrol 3280-3284 Colleen Hughson to get advice, knowing she had experienced encountering an injured seal before.
“I then knew to get in contact with Victoria’s Marine Response Unit through Zoos Victoria in Melbourne,” she said.
“All I had to do was send a pin drop of my location and they knew exactly where I was.
“Since the rescue team were coming three hours from Melbourne, I also got in touch with Eastern Maar Sea Country Rangers who came down to help too.
“They came down and kept watch over the seal so it didn’t return to the water.”
When the team arrived, they were able to safely remove the rope from around the seal’s neck and medically clear it, allowing it to return back into the ocean.
Mrs Bale said the encounter reminded her how important it is to keep beaches clean.
“We pick up so much rope on our beach clean ups,” she said.
“I reckon it’s the number one item we collect.
“It wasn’t a massive bit of net but it was big enough to entangle a baby seal.
“If people see something, they should pick it up, because you never know – it could save a life.”
The Beach Patrol 3280-3284 group mainly operates across the Warrnambool, Koroit, Port Fairy and Portland areas.
“We do group clean ups monthly,” Mrs Bale said.
“We’re the only group outside the bayside.
“Our next clean up in Portland has 35 people registered for it.
“I expect we’ll pick up a lot of ropes.”
Mrs Bale said it would be good for more people in Peterborough to get involved with beach cleans and maybe even start their own Beach Patrol group.
“We have a lot of members who do their own cleans,” she said.
“We log the data into the Litter Stopper app.
“It breaks down the types of waste like if they’re plastic bottles or fishing waste.
“If you go on to the webpage you can see each group and see how much they’ve collected year to date.
“We’ve collected almost over 2000 kilos that’s just this year.”
Mrs Bale said anyone can get involved in the movement.
“Just go online to Beach Patrol Australia and join your local group,” she said.
“It’s free to join and it would be fantastic to see more clean up activity in Peterborough to hopefully prevent things like this happening again.”
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