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Documentary reveals urgent rabies threat to South Africa’s marine ecosystem

Documentary reveals urgent rabies threat to South Africa’s marine ecosystem
Cape Fur seals at Yzerfontein, captured in the new Out of the Blue documentary about the mystery of Cape Fur Seals. (Photo: Out of the Blue director and cinematographer Floris Tils)
Kristin Engel
By Kristin Engel
15 Jan 2025
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A documentary that premiered on 11 January 2025, unpacks the first rabies outbreak in marine animals, affecting Cape fur seals along South Africa’s coast. This rare crisis, linked to jackal-to-seal transmission, raises alarm over its potential spread to Antarctica and beyond, posing risks to ecosystems, tourism, and human safety.

Since 2021, ocean users have been alarmed by reports and contact with aggressive seals, and in 2024 it was confirmed that the cause behind this was an outbreak of rabies. Before this, the only known positive case of rabies in seals was of a ringed seal in Norway in 1980, but there haven’t been cases of multiple individuals from the same population contracting rabies until now.

South Africa and the world are still in the beginning stages of understanding the rabies outbreak in Cape fur seals — the first outbreak of rabies in the marine environment — and a documentary, Out of the Blue, sheds new light on the cause behind the curious and playful Cape fur seals turning rabid and aggressive across our shores.

According to researchers and the government in South Africa, this outbreak is the first known instance where rabies has become endemic in a marine species (where a marine animal has become a maintenance host for rabies). 

Now all eyes are on South Africa as it works to contain the outbreak before it spreads and crosses borders, which would have far-reaching consequences on both marine life and human safety. 

The Out of the Blue documentary with film director Floris Tils, which premiered at Gallery South in Muizenberg on 11 January, dives into the matter, raising awareness and urging all stakeholders and ocean lovers to get involved in preventing rabies from creeping deeper into our oceans before it affects other species, and human life. 

Narrated by local visual artist Theko Boshomane, who draws inspiration from the ocean and seals for his art, the film unpacks the crisis, the research being done, South Africa’s overall response and what this outbreak means for seal carers, fishers, businesses and ocean conservation. 

In the documentary, Tess Gridley, founding director of Sea Search, an NGO specialising in marine mammal research, said: “Cape fur seals are abundant and not cause for concern from a conservation perspective; other species and populations of seals are, and if those were to contract rabies from Cape fur seals, and we could have done something to prevent that, that’s a big problem, and ethically I think that’s where the biggest issue is.”

Out of the Blue documentary




Tils said that his main drive as a filmmaker was to have a positive impact on the environment, and that he believed this documentary had the power to achieve this.

“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 said.

Boshomane told Daily Maverick that he drew inspiration from the ocean for his artwork, and was always looking to share a story, elevate environmental care, and learn from nature. This was how he became involved in narrating the documentary, speaking with survivors of seal attacks, seal carers in Kalk Bay, business owners and researchers.

In an interview with Daily Maverick, Tils said that they did not yet have a distribution platform, but for now they planned to do impact screenings in South Africa to get as much attention on the matter as possible. 

Rabies in seals crossing borders and long-term consequences 


The long-term consequences of rabies in fur seals remain unknown, as this is the first occurrence at this scale in the species. 

Gridley told Daily Maverick: “This is the first (rabies) outbreak globally in any marine mammal, and we have good evidence that there’s animal-to-animal transmission (from seal to seal). They’re passing it between each other.”

The researchers believe 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. 

“The reason that we think it comes from a black-backed jackal is that rabies has been sequenced… There are different strains of rabies, and this one is more similar to one that’s been isolated within jackals, but the exact location and the timing at which point seals transmitted rabies from jackals is unknown,” Gridley said.

Due to the nature of rabies, the animal that is suspected to be infected has to be dead in order for a test to be conducted, as a sample of brain tissue is used to test for the rabies virus. Upon sampling and a positive test result, the carcass is then disposed of at a hazardous waste facility. 

The Out of the Blue documentary premiered on 11 January 2025 at Gallary South in Muizenberg, Cape Town. From left are narrator and artist Theko Boshomane and film director Floris Tils. (Photo: Geora Zadok)



A Cape Fur Seal swims playfully at Duiker Island, captured in the new Out of the Blue documentary. (Photo: Out of the Blue director and cinematographer Floris Tils)



And in a case where the seal of concern had interacted with a human (i.e. a bite case), that human will be advised to get a rabies post-exposure prophylaxis.

“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,” Gridely said. 

Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa told Daily Maverick that control of the disease in fur seal populations was not going to be a simple, even achievable task. 

“Current protocols recommend that one of the ways to manage the situation is to humanely euthanise individual seals exhibiting rabid symptoms in line with the case definition that was developed by technical specialists working together on managing/understanding the outbreak,” Mbelengwa said.

While the first Cape fur seal with positive results for rabies was tested in South Africa, the Western Cape Department of Agriculture told Daily Maverick that it was likely that the outbreak began in Namibia and spread to the South African coast by being transmitted from seal to seal. 

“There have been no confirmed cases of seal rabies reported from Namibia yet, but there are anecdotal reports of seals behaving highly suspiciously. All evidence at the moment points towards the outbreak having started in Namibia,” said department head of communication, Mary James.

The coast of Namibia is generally less populated and accessible than the coast of South Africa, so the department has said that obtaining samples for testing in Namibia was more challenging. 

Long-term consequences


The rabies response plan is divided into different groups. Sea Search is involved in the surveillance and also the scientific research components. But there are other groups, SPCA and the Two Oceans Aquarium, with the City of Cape Town and some independent vets who are working on vaccination.

In terms of the long-term consequences, researchers and the department said it was not possible to predict all the impacts rabies in the seal population may have on other species in the marine environment and the functioning of local ecosystems. 

However, James added that the possible spread of rabies to the sub-Antarctic, Antarctic and other regions of the world was a concern. 

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment said in response to Daily Maverick that it would be difficult to postulate what the implications of the spread of rabies to Antarctica would be, but it was safe to assume that it would have an impact on seal populations and therefore on the relative pristine ecosystem there. 

“Transmission dynamic modelling will be conducted by a multi-institutional team of scientists to better understand the dynamics of potential spread to other regions,” Mbelengwa said.

James said that the other impact that had already begun to be seen was the negative impact of seal rabies on the tourism industry, with some enterprises having to close their seal-snorkelling trips to keep their staff and clients safe.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment was concerned about the potential transfer of rabies to domestic dogs that frequented the coastal areas, either as pets or strays. They also remained concerned about potential infections of a vagrant seal specimen such as the southern elephant seal.

Vaccinations and status update on the rabies outbreak


The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, Sea Search, the City of Cape Town, the SPCA, Western Cape Veterinary Services, the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation, South African Association for Marine Biological Research, SharkSpotters and others have been working to mitigate the spread of rabies.

Very little is known about the transfer of the virus in the marine environment, as well as the effectiveness of existing registered rabies vaccines in Cape fur seals. However, there are a few small vaccination research projects currently under way for Cape fur seals and other seal species.

The Western Cape Department of Agriculture has said that this research aims to measure the immune response of the seals to the vaccine to determine whether the vaccine would protect them against rabies, and how many vaccinations would be necessary to achieve this. 

Cape Fur seals at Robberg in the Western Cape of South Africa, captured in the new Out of the Blue documentary. (Photo: Out of the Blue director and cinematographer Floris Tils)



Cape Fur seals at Yzerfontein, from Out of the Blue. (Photo: Out of the Blue director and cinematographer Floris Tils)



However, James said that if this research showed that vaccination would protect Cape fur seals, it would be practically impossible to vaccinate enough seals to protect the whole population against rabies. 

“There are approximately two million Cape fur seals living along the coasts of Namibia and South Africa, many in inaccessible areas and on remote islands offshore. To vaccinate a seal, it needs to be caught or darted before it can be injected, which is a risky procedure that can only be done by highly skilled people,” she said.

Because of this vaccination was more likely to be used in specific groups of seals that were in close contact with people.

Mbelengwa told Daily Maverick that vaccinations were limited to Cape fur seals that were likely to interact with humans (e.g. at fishing harbours) and vagrant seals likely to interact with Cape fur seals at colonies (i.e. southern elephant seal). 

“These are all done under a Section 20 permit from the Department of Agriculture and are led by the Two Oceans Aquarium’s vets (in the Western Cape) in collaboration with other scientific stakeholders. Ushaka Marine and Bay World Aquarium have also participated in the vaccination study for Eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal,” Mbelengwa said.

The latest update report by the National Department of Agriculture on 31 October 2024, states that large-scale vaccination of Cape fur seals against rabies was not practical or feasible. DM

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