Watch: Lighthouse contractors come to rescue of seal with 'unwanted plastic necklace'
Drama as workers struggle to calm marine mammal
Three lighthouse contractors have come to a seal’s aid after spotting plastic waste caught round its neck.
They threw a bag over the animal to calm it and held it down before using a knife to cut off what’s thought to have been a plastic foam gasket used in pipelines.
A video captures the rescue, which happened while Mikey Patterson, and George and Derek Thomson were refurbishing Hyskeir lighthouse for the Northern Lighthouse Board, west of Rum in the Inner Hebrides.
Mr Patterson said: “I was working up on the lighthouse balcony when I spotted it.
“The seal was slightly upset when we caught it, but once we had its head covered, it calmed down, letting us remove the plastic ring from its neck.
“It seemed happy to be released from its unwanted necklace.”
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He held the seal down while George put the bag over its head and Derek cut the plastic in the incident last month.
Lindsay Gillies, projects director of contractors TRAC HLM, told The Scotsman: “There are usually loads of seals about there and they can be quite aggressive - hissing and spitting at you - so we normally keep out of their way.
“It was quite a challenge to get hold of the seal - a bit of a vicious struggle at first.
“They had not come across this before but nobody likes to see this sort of thing - the plastic was a recipe for the seal’s death.”
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