Seals, Shells, Seashore

On Saturday,  Jim and I drove to Cape St. Francis, a rocky point guarded by a large old Lighthouse.   We took a walk out to Seal Point, and - yes, indeed - we did see one.  Jim tried to walk too close, and it lunged, barked (like a dog), then flipped into the sea.

I felt that Jim and I were living the old tongue twister, "She sells seashells by the seashore."
The beach was filled with shells - whole shells, broken shells, shells of all kinds.  Some shells had not yet stopped being someone's house...

We went to the nearby Penguin Rescue and Rehab Center.   This is a center that provides temporary care to African Penguins that are injured, displaced, or affected by oil spills.  The Center's work is all aimed at releasing them back to sea.  As such, the public is not allowed inside.  But, we could watch them through a window, at a pool that was called - with a great deal of humor - The Penguin Hilton.

(This guy must be the lifeguard..)

African Penguins are endangered; we have gone from 4 million in the world in early 1900's to fewer than 55,000 in 2010.  One "good news" story told at the Center was about a great rescue effort in 2000.  In June of 2000, the MV Treasure sank between Robben and Dassen Islands near Cape Town, releasing over a thousand tons of fuel oil at the epicenter of their breeding areas.  Thousands of oiled birds were brought to a warehouse in Cape Town for cleaning.  Nineteen thousand un-oiled birds were trucked to Port Elizabeth where they were immediately placed back into the sea.  Their homing instinct kicked in, and they swam 500 miles back to the two islands.  It took them 3 weeks, by which time the oil had been cleaned up or dissipated.  This is called the largest animal rescue in history-- and 91% of the birds made it!