'Bursting at the seams' : Seal Group Meeting 6
The latest Seal Group meeting was held on Wednesday 6th January 2005 at Sue's house. Bursting at the seams, Sue's lounge was full, thanks to a great turn out. We were delighted to welcome new members, from as far away as Brittany, as well as from the National Trust and Cornwall Wildlife Trust.
If you would like to become an active member of the Seal Group, have any information for us, want to ask us a question about the seals you see or just want to say you support what we are doing, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us by emailing ssayer@suesseals.eclipse.co.uk
Agenda items included
- Pup news
- Identification, tracking and recording work
- Monitoring and managing disturbance
- Providing information and resources for the public
- Future rescue procedures
- Resources
- Links with C SMOG, CWT, BDMLR, NSS and Oceanopolis
- Website
We have learned so much from our recent collaborative observation of local pups and their mothers, particularly in terms of their growth, development and behaviour.
The last twelve months has seen members making massive progress in identifying individual seals. This is difficult and time consuming work requiring considerable patience and our achievements in this respect should not be underestimated. The data we are collecting is beginning to reveal some interesting patterns that will help us develop a model for predicting seal numbers and visits.
The next twelve months will see us trying to raise the public's awareness and knowledge about grey seals. Sue has already written a leaflet about the seals for the National Trust to issue to visitors at Godrevy. After much review and debate, we have decided that the more people know about the seals at Godrevy, the more protection the seals will enjoy. We hope to raise funds to provide some basic binocular and telescope kit to give the public a better 'distant' view of the seals without causing any disturbance. We hope that, on balance, any service we provide will benefit both the seals and the public equally, whilst recognising that protecting the seals is our priority.
If you see the seals being disturbed in any way, please do not hesitate to ring 08705 777444.
We are particularly keen to monitor and record any disturbance of the seals and welcome everyone's help with this. Please email us - we are especially interested to know if the disturbance was caused by any of the following:
- People going down the path to the cove or on the beach
- Dogs barking at the clifftop
- High pitched sounds or voices from the clifftop
- People wearing white, yellow or red clothing at the clifftop
- Low flying aircraft
- Jet skis
- Canoes and surfskis
- Dive boats or other sea craft.
Please also email us if you see any of the following:
- White coat seal pups
- Net entangled seals
- Dead seals
The Cornwall Wildlife Trust has produced an excellent Marine Code of Conduct. If you see a:
- live and healthy large marine animal, please report it to the Seaquest database by clicking here or ring 01872 240777
- live marine animal being harassed or disturbed you should report this immediately on 08705 777444.
- dead marine creature, please make contact with the Strandings hotline on 0845 2012626 as soon as you can.