Silva the seal.

Silva the seal.



Silva the Australian fur seal was a beautiful and cheeky sight for millions of visitors to Melbourne zoo and an example of the importance of keeping our oceans clean.


She died on Friday after failing to recover from surgery last week to remove an ovarian cyst. Zoo staff decided not to prolong her suffering.


The zoo said Silva had suffered from health issues in recent years that had been "managed successfully ".


When Silva was nine months old when she was found caught in discarded fishing net near London Bridge on the Sorrento back beach in July 1988.


She was near death and needed months of intensive treatment at the zoo to heal the deep wound in her neck that had cut through several layers of muscle.


"Essentially she was rescued in the nick of time, as she would have died of an inability to feed," senior veterinarian Helen McCracken said.


"The fibre of the netting had been sawing back and forth over weeks, getting tighter as she grew.”


Young seals are very playful, so it was likely that Silva was playing with the floating netting.


She went on to become the face of the Seal the Loop , a campaign to clean up Victoria's beaches.


The social animals often gather in groups, especially in summer when mothers are giving birth and raising their pups.


Seal Rocks near Phillip Island and Lady Julia Percy Island near Port Fairy are two of the biggest breeding colonies for this protected species.


The species is native to the waters and offshore islands of Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and South Australia.


The average life span of an Australian Fur Seal in the wild is about 20 years.