A hungry seal who chomped his way through a lake of fish has sadly died after a failed capture attempt.
The grey seal, named Nelson, arrived in Marks Hall Fisheries in Rochford, Essex in December after swimming up the nearby River Road and then refused to leave.
The four-foot-long mammal was seen happily eating his way through the lake's £4,000 worth of stock of carp, catfish and bream over the last few weeks.
Lake owner Nick North had to close his business as the "very fat" seal evaded the last two attempts from wildlife groups to remove him.
However, tragedy struck the large one-year-old male during the latest "rescue" attempt on Friday.
An eyewitness saw the seal fail to resurface after wildlife teams shot the animal with a tranquillizer gun.
Darren Lindsey, from Rochford, spotted the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) team by the lake whilst walking his dog.
Darren said: "They had a tranquillizer gun and shot towards the seal.
"I am surprised they went down that route and I am interested to see why they did. I don’t see why a trap or cage wasn’t used instead.
"They said they had enough experts and divers there, but to me, it didn’t seem like they were ready.
"The seal didn’t resurface afterwards and they didn’t seem to be able to find it. I was hoping for a successful rescue."
British Divers Marine Life Rescue had previously used nets to try and remove the seal from the business' lakes to no luck.
They also issued a statement after the second removal attempt on January 9, stating that tranquillizers wouldn't work on an animal like Nelson.
It read: "Unfortunately tranquillizers do not work well with any pinniped (the seal species family) for two reasons.
"They can shut down into mammalian dive reflex, meaning the effects of any drug are ineffective giving time for the seal to go into the water.
"Once in water (or if darted in water) the tranquillizer makes the breathing system "open" meaning you will get a huge risk of drowning - especially in a dark lake where we cannot see where the animal is.
"A couple of rescue centres worldwide do dart, but only for much larger animals and where they can get to it immediately, and where the risk of it dying naturally in pain is higher than the risk of it dying once darted (e.g. having a massive injury)."
Nick North, who runs the angling lakes, said: "I'd just like it known that myself and Marks Hall Fisheries had nothing to do with the decision to use a tranquilliser dart to try and capture the seal.
"It was the sole responsibility of the BDMLR to use this method and they made the decision to go ahead.
"We were only on-site as observers as I'm the licence holder for fishing rights at Rochford Reservoir."
Councillor Dave Sperring from Rochford District Council who leads on environmental issues, said: "It was very tightly controlled with who was there.
"It is desperately sad. Nelson became a local character overnight.
"As I understand it was injured and the rescue was necessary to return it to its natural environment.
"They had it well managed. All the experts that could possibly be there were there.
"It’s a protected species. I’ve met these people on many occasions and they're very conscientious.
"They wouldn’t have gone out to deliberately kill it. They wouldn’t have made all these attempts for that outcome.
"Occasionally things don’t go as we hoped. It’s one of these things that we have to face on occasions."
The BDMLR have been contacted for a comment.
