A charity is backing a campaign calling for stronger legal protection for seals, saying human disturbance is harming their health and welfare. The Seal Research Trust, external, based in Cornwall, has backed calls from the UK Seal Alliance to make the deliberate disturbance of seals an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, external. Trust founder Sue Sayers said seals resting on beaches were regularly being disturbed by people, causing stress, injury and sleep deprivation.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "We have a suite of legislative protections in place which make it an offence to take, injure, capture or kill a seal." Sayers said: "Seals need sleep just like we do... When they're disturbed, they can panic, stampede across a beach or throw themselves into the sea, risking serious injury." The campaign follows concerns over what the trust described as the "hidden cost" of disturbance. The charity said frequent interruptions could affect seals' immune systems, hormone levels and ability to recover between feeding trips.
Sayers also expressed concern about this year's seal pup season, describing it as one of the worst on record. "More than half of the seal pups we've recorded so far this year have been dead or dying." She said until this year, the trust had never recorded seal pups being born in every month of a calendar year, and believed climate change had influenced breeding patterns. The Seal Research Trust advises anyone who encounteres a seal to stay at least 100m (328ft) away, avoid sharing its location on social media and never attempt to feed or move the animal.
In May, UK Seal Alliance launched its Give Seals Space, external, campaign, calling on the government to reconsider previous recommendations and provide the two species "with the legal protection they deserve". The campaign warns that they are highly sensitive to disturbance from the public, animals and drones. It states these can have long-lasting consequences to the animals' health and that it can lead to pup abandonment, wasted energy from staying alert and injuries from panic fleeing.
Follow BBC Cornwall on X, external, Facebook, external and Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to [email protected], external. Plea to give Thames seals space for everyone's safety The fight to stop animals dying in fishing nets Seal campaigners welcome voluntary flying ring ban Early seal pup season sparks disturbance warning
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