Tangled and trapped seal running out of time saved

The young grey seal was entangled in a mass of fishing net

Marine medics have saved the life of a young seal after it became entangled in discarded fishing net which snagged on a mussel bed in shallow water.

The grey seal was caught in a mass of net which became caught on the mussel bed, anchoring it down and risking the mammal's life at a beach in west Cornwall on Sunday.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said had the tide been coming in, the water would have drowned it.

A team of BDMLR volunteers freed the seal before the tide turned and found it had minimal injuries, leading the charity's director Dan Jarvis to call it "an incredibly lucky seal" which he hoped would go on to live "a happy and healthy life".

Mr Jarvis said: "Fortunately it had been a recent entanglement so there was just a strangulation impression of the net having been really tight around its neck area."

He said after the seal had been set free the team had weighed the armful of net it had been tangled in and found it to weigh 35oz (1kg).

The net has been sent to the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority to see if it could find out more information about the net, including where it came from.

Mr Jarvis asked members of the public to keep their distance and put dogs on leads if they saw a seal on a beach and if they thought the mammal was in trouble, to call BDMLR.