Cornwall Seal Group : Achievements to date
The Cornwall Seal Group have proved that :-
Grey Seals at one north coast haulout can come from Porspoder in Brittany in France (Red Tag 52693.)
Grey seals visiting one north coast haulout can come from all around the Cornish coast. One seal (DP41) swam from St Ives Bay to Porth Joke and back over a 13 day period during September 2003. Another seal took 10 days to swim from Falmouth to St Ives Bay (Yellow hat 08.)
One seal swam from one north coast haulout to South Wales and back between May and July 2005.
The second confirmed and recorded Common Seal in Cornwall was sighted at a north coast haulout on 09/07/05 (Source Cornwall Wildlife Trust website.)
Grey seals from one north coast haulout have been observed and identified in 9 other locations around the Cornish Coast.
10 seals have been observed at both St Ives Bay and Porth Joke on the north coast of Cornwall (Thanks to Bex Allen.)
3 seals have been observed at both St Ives Bay & the Carracks (west of St Ives) (Thanks to Dan Jarvis.)
A catalogue of around 450 different seals have been identified at one north coast haulout and 227 different identified seals visited one north coast haulout between 14/04/05 and 15/04/06.
National Seal Sanctuary Seals survive after release back into the wild. (2 seals released in 2001, 3 seals released in 2002, 2 seals released in 2003, 5 seals released in 2004, 5 seals released in 2005 and 3 seals released in 2006 have been seen at one north coast haulout.)
There is no static colony of seals at our observation haulout, although seals have been seen every month since June 2000. This site acts as a 'service station' on the seal motorway linking the Celtic Fringe. Some seals :-
- can be seen there for several months of the year every year from 2000. (Semi residents)
- can be seen there a few times every year from 2000. (Regulars)
- are only seen once or twice. (Migrants)
Net entanglement percentages for seals at one north coast haulout are higher than the national average of 2%. Our figures indicate that around 4% to 8.3% of seals seen here have some form of net entanglement, much of which involves discarded netting.
Most seals visiting our observation haul out are males (60%) with 28% females and 12% juveniles.
Breeding females have shown site fidelity for up to 3 years running and the Beachmaster had shown site fidelity for 2 years running.
Seal Group Members have called out 6 successful rescues for net entangled or malnourished seal pups from the haul out beach.
The Seal Group has collaborated with Cornwall County Council and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust to produce a St Ives Bay version of the Marine Code of Conduct, aimed at reducing the levels of disturbance for all marine creatures.