A warning has been issued for people wanting to visit the North West’s only grey seal colony after several animals have died in suspicious circumstances in recent weeks.
The colony, at South Walney Nature Reserve, has been disturbed several times in the last few weeks, said Cumbria Wildlife Trust and said it was concerned about how much more the seals can take from boat tours and people getting too close.
It said: “So far this autumn, a porpoise, two adult seals and two new-born pups have died in two separate incidents. Cumbria Wildlife Trust fears these deaths may be the result of boats getting too close.
“The porpoise and one of the dead adult seals appear to have been killed by collisions with boats, whilst the pups may have become separated from their mothers following disturbance.”
Currently, only one new-born grey seal pup has been spotted alive on the Cumbria Wildlife Trust seal webcam.
Beth Churn, marine conservation officer for Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “October is usually an exciting time of year for us, as we await the first sightings of seal pups at South Walney Nature Reserve.
“But this year, our excitement has turned to sadness, anger and frustration, following two separate incidents of seal pup deaths, which we believe may be the direct result of human disturbance.
“The first was two weeks ago when we found two adult seals and one seal pup washed up at the nature reserve. There was also a dead porpoise with them.
“One of the adult seals and the porpoise had injuries that suggest they’d been hit by a boat.
“The cause of death of the seal pup and other adult are not clear, but may be linked to the same incident. When mothers with pups are disturbed or alarmed, they flush into the water, potentially abandoning the new-born pups which can then starve.
“This weekend, we were pleased to see another seal pup on our sealcam, but concerned to also see on the sealcam how a seal-watching boat trip and several small boats were far too close to the colony.
“We could see from sealcam that the mother was scared off. When they flush into the sea, it causes them to waste their much-needed energy stores and risks them abandoning the pup.
“We went down to South Walney on Monday to conduct our seal count and monitor the pup but couldn’t find it, leading us to believe that the disturbance caused by the boats may have led to the death of the seal pup.”
Paul Waterhouse, reserves officer at Cumbria Wildlife Trust, said: “These terrible incidents have happened despite repeated appeals to small boat users and local ferry companies to keep their distance from the seal colony, especially during pupping season.
“We’ve reported the incidents to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the local wildlife crime police officer.
“Defra, the wildlife tourism industry and conservationists have produced clear guidance for how sea users, including kayakers, anglers and operators of small boats, can enjoy watching wildlife in a responsible and wildlife-friendly way.
“This recommends that boats must keep at least 100m from seal colonies. Footage from our webcam shows a commercial operator and some small sailing boats coming much closer into shore than that.”
One seal tour operator has suspended its operations during the pupping season from this month to early November.
Mr Waterhouse added: “We thank them for their responsible decision. Others, however, continue to operate despite requests for them to avoid disturbing the seals. Continued disturbance may drive the seals elsewhere, leaving us with no colony at South Walney and nothing for the seal-watching ferry trips to see.”
The best way to see the Walney seals is to watch the live sealcam, the trust said.
Alternatively, visitors to South Walney can watch the seals in the sea at high tide from a safe distance in Groyne Hide, but there is no access to the beach where the seals haul out.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust said it was appealing to all sea users, including kayakers, anglers and boats, to maintain at least 100m distance from the seal colony at all times.
The seal colony at this nature reserve is recent – it has only developed since the 1980s and 1990s – and this is only the ninth year in which the seals have bred.
