FIREFIGHTERS in Clacton went to the aid of a distressed seal that had become entangled in a discarded football net and was stranded on rocks.

Roddy Ashworth

FIREFIGHTERS in Clacton went to the aid of a distressed seal that had become entangled in a discarded football net and was stranded on rocks.

Emergency services were alerted to the plight of the marine animal, which had been spotted from the beach at Marine Parade East, at around 7.30am.

The rescue workers managed to free the seal from the netting - which had tightened round its neck - but then called in the RSPCA when they noticed it was also badly injured.

Watch Manager Jim Bowyer, the officer in charge of the fire crew, said; “It wasn't what we expected to find as the last job of the shift but as soon as we got to the sea-front we could see that the seal was in quiet a lot of distress.

“It had got tangled up in some football netting and it was on the rock and appeared to be in real trouble.

“The netting was tight around the poor thing's neck and looked like it was strangling the seal.

“We covered its head in a salvage sheet and one of the crew held it down while the rest of us worked at cutting the netting.

“Once we had got the netting off we discovered that it had caused a severe cut to the animals neck so we called for the RSPCA and kept the seal wrapped up and cooled it with buckets of water and waited with it for an hour while they came.

“It has now been taken to a seal sanctuary in Norfolk to recover from its ordeal.”