Friday, 28 October 2011

Marine Rubbish - This Is What Can Happen

A grey seal pup similar to the one caught in this incident.




The last few days have seen the Isle of May in the news but not for a good reason. A very young seal pup born on Pilgrims Haven decided to do a bit of investigation of a structure that it found on the beach. Unfortunately itwas a creel (used for catching lobsters) washed up on the beach after the last lot of stormy weather. It crawled in through a hole but then found it couldn't get out. Its mother stayed by its side all this time but it seems that though the pup was later seen out of the creel it didn't survive the experience and was dead on the beach a short time later. All this drama was captured on the live web cams that are linked from the beach to the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick . Footage of the trapped seal was released as a press release to highlight the dangers to wildlife caused by rubbish washing up on the beach. The links to the BBC and STV television websites are below.


We clean Pilgrims Haven regularly of rubbish (see blog posting Tues 27 Sept) including removing at least 10 creels this season, the last time shortly before we left the island for the season. It is therefore very dispiriting to see more rubbish being washed up and causing this problem.







Watch the seals on Pilgrims Haven through the Scottish Seabird Centre webcam:






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1 comment:

  1. susan28 October 2011 at 18:36

    thanks for posting this, David. I started to watch the video on the first link but I couldn't bear it. truly sickening. and such atrocities are going on all the time all around the world. calls to mind those photo's of Chris Jordan (http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018x24) :[

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