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2024-03-31-accounts

SRT Annual Report 2023

Research Communicate Inspire Conserve Protecting Pinnipeds People Planet

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Registered charity number:1162936
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SRT Annual Report 2023

Contents
Summary 3
Funders 4
People 6
Marine Rangers and Science Advisor 6
Hubs, Volunteers and Photo ID Coordinator 6
Charity Achievements and Activities 7
Summary 7
Talks 8
Workshops/Training 9
Stalls/Events 11
Field Engagement 12
Exhibitions and School Sessions 13
Photo ID Project (PIP) organised surveys 13
Meetings 14
Reports 15
Seals SW Sessions, Seals SW Newsletters and Wild Seal Supporter Updates 16
Resources and Media Coverage 16
Planetary Technologies Marine Geoengineering Experiment 18
Deep Learning Computer Vision Project 19
Feedback about SRT Activities 20
Seal Data Outputs 25
Surveys and Volunteers 25
Age and Sex Classes 25
Grey Seal Pups 25
Common Seals and Common Seal Pups 26
Photos, Albums and Identifications 26
Ex rescued, Rehabilitated and Released Seals 28
Entangled Seals 28
Disturbance 30
Policy and Conservation Actions 32
Consultations 32
Legislation 33
Campaigns 33
Practical Conservation Actions 35
Highlights of 2023: Seals and People
 37
Conclusion 37

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SRT Annual Report 2023

Executive Summary

Funders

SRT are now self-financing thanks to our public, private and voluntary funders. Substantial grants and donations were received from Natural England, LUSH, the Humane Society International, Derek Bryan Gray, NovaTomato, Carbis Bay Hotel, Bare Kind, MoonSeals, Isabella White Studios, Aspects, Bowgie, Mungo Lils on the Hill, Smartie Lids on the Beach, Our Only World, Polzeath Marine Conservation Group and the Seal Protection Action Group.

People

Thank you to our Patron, Science experts, Hubs and Volunteers – this is a massive team effort.

Charity Achievements and Activities

In 2023 SRT delivered 740 activities (including 245 UK and 80 globally) involving 29,183 beneficiaries. We ended the year with 18,313 social media followers. Volunteers delivered 69 talks, 20 workshops, 11 stalls/events, 217 field engagements, 1 8 month exhibition, 8 school sessions, 20 Photo ID Project day long surveys, 322 meetings, 27 reports, 12 Seals SW Sessions 12 Seals SW Newsletters, 4 Wild Seal Supporter updates, 2 new resources, 63 media coverage events. Working with multiple partners, SRT have helped to prevent Planetary Technology getting a licence for their St Ives Bay Geoengineering experiment in 2023.

Feedback about SRT Activities

Thank you for all your kind words about your engagement with us. It spurs us all on!

Seal Data Outputs

252 survey volunteers completed 4,567 discrete surveys from 328 locations alongside our quarterly census and 20 PIPs. A mean of 9.2 seals were recorded up to a max of 458. 66% were adults of which 56% were males. There were 581 sightings of white coated pups at 39 locations (including 11 on the south coast) representing 1% of all seals. Ghost had her 20[th] pup in 21 years. There were 44 harbour seal sightings with up to a max of 4 at 8 locations. 105,235 photos were processed into 1,899 albums for 11,409 IDs. 34 seals have been identified for at least 20 years. 3,175 unique seals were ID’d – 58 20+ times. 6 dead seals were ID’d. 126 different tagged seals (2%) were ID’d. 81 unique entangled seals were ID’d (2%). 13 hooked seals recorded. 156 serious disturbance incidents involved 1,328 seals (max 163).

Policy and Conservation Actions

35 consultations were submitted (7 for conservation, 6 on issues, 10 for developments, 7 on fisheries and 5 others). SRT drafted the Seal Protection Parliamentary Debate and joined Wildlife and Countryside LINK. We continue to pursue the goal of making seal disturbance illegal. 2023 campaigns were Disturbance, Flying Rings, Climate Change and Geoengineering.

Highlights from 2023 and Conclusion

2 adult females re-ID’d after a 16 and 20 year absence. Sue Sayer’s MBE for everyone at SRT! SRT make a huge contribution to multiple aspects of seal and marine conservation with just 1.5fte paid rangers and hundreds of incredible and amazing volunteers. Thank you all!

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SRT Annual Report 2023

Seal Research Trust (SRT) est. Cornwall 2000 Annual Report 2023

Funders

In 2023 we achieved our ambition to transform SRT into a self-financing charity, funding our low overheads from public, private and voluntary donations , through our Wild Seal Supporter and Adoption Scheme, volunteer fundraising efforts and with profits from our online shop . Our Sanctuaries at Sea Ranger, Sarah Millward, applied for one funding grant to support our boat survey charter costs. We were delighted when this was successful, as our costs were again covered by the LUSH Charity Pot. Our biggest donation of the year was a legacy from the estate of Derek Bryan Gray , to whom we are hugely grateful. Thank you to Derek’s family.

As our datasets grow they become increasingly useful for marine conservation, so SRT were honoured to have two reports commissioned and funded by Natural England. The first SRT’s ‘Boat-based Photo Identification Project: Marine Life and Human Activity Surveys ‘Other’ Species 2011 – 2022’ by Sarah was 44 pages long and covered cetaceans, seals and other marine megafauna. The second was a 46 page ‘Network of Sensitive Seal Sites in the SW UK’ report by Sue Sayer MBE. As the latter contains multiple references to sensitive seal sites (SSSs), this has not been made publicly available.

The Humane Society International (HSI) approached SRT to create 6 ‘Post Release Monitoring’ seal stories about ex rescued, rehabilitated and released’ built up from our extensive Photo ID sightings. Collated by our wonderful volunteer Joyce Williams, these case studies provide an inspiring insight into the second chances made by seals that needed a helping hand. HSI also funded the creation of a new SRT/BDMLR film outlining why more rehabilitation capacity is required as a result of the impacts of climate change, called Sea Change: Seals.

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To ensure efficient use of critical funding, SRT created a public call to action version of this film too , showing how we can all make daily decisions to reduce our climate emissions. Huge thanks to SRT’s Media Team: Barry Williams, Polly Ford and George S Jones.

We were completely surprised when NovaTomato approached SRT in July offering to run a 3 month fundraising campaign for us entitled ‘Protect Baby Seals’ . NovaTomato are an ondemand, waste free, fashion platform, that includes polo shirts made from recycled plastic bottles. Huge thanks to NovaTomato and everyone who supported us, raising $3617.45!

On 23/04/23, the Carbis Bay Hotel ran a ‘fundraising funday’ event for SRT. It was a hugely enjoyable experience with displays, a wild swim, children’s activities, a seal talk, book reading and raffle. Led by the lovely Harriet Tatlow, Emily Barker (artist), Sarah Walsh (Cornish Kelpie) and Sue Sayer, the day raised £803, which was a massive achievement, doing justice to a great team effort by the hotel staff, SRT volunteers and supporters.

Lucy Jefferies from Bare Kind became our new corporate sponsor, donating money from every pair of eco seal socks sold, whilst Charlotte Fitzgerald and Clare Sirman from MoonSeals donated a substantial amount of their epic merchandise to sell on our ‘one stop sealy shop’. Thank you all! Isabella White found us through the ‘One Percent for the Planet’ network, leading her to make her first, much appreciated, donation to our charity.

Of course, SRT remain hugely grateful to those organisations who repeat funded us in 2023. It is these ongoing donations that help our charity’s sustainability over the long term. These businesses, large and small, included Aspects Holidays, Bowgie Inn, Mungo Lils on the Hill and Smartie Lids on the Beach, as well as charitable organisations Our Only World, Polzeath Marine Conservation Group and the Seal Protection Action Group.

Thank you to Hayley Mitchell our Seal Supporter Coordinator who ran two Jumblebee fundraising auctions for seals in August and December 2023. They were a great team effort – thank you! As a highly agile, thrifty and economical charity, our 1.5 full time equivalent Rangers continue to be our charity’s main outgoing, alongside boat charters (funded by LUSH Charity Pot) and some modest IT hardware/software application costs.

Thank you to our current funders for paying our cri cal 1. e Marine Rangers

SRT 2023 Funders

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People

Patron, Marine Rangers and Science Advisors

2023 was a year of exciting opportunities and consolidation. Gillian Burke (Springwatch) continues to be our charity Patron . We began the year with 1.3 full time equivalent (fte) paid rangers – Sarah Millward (Sanctuaries at Sea Ranger) and Lauren McGregor (Activities and Administration Ranger). By the end of 2023 it had become apparent that we were in need of more administrative support, so Lauren added more hours to her working week and Karen Gaudern (Administration and Retail Ranger) joined our team, bringing us up to 1.5 fte roles . Rebecca Allen continues to be our volunteer Science Advisor helping us with numerous data analyses for the Natural England reports. In 2023 she was joined by Dr Ian Hendy from Portsmouth University and Dr David Santillo from Greenpeace International . These two experts have been helping advise us about our response to the Planetary Technology proposed geoengineering project (see page 18). We are thankful and glad to have these wonderful people/experts to help and support our incredible volunteer network and conservation efforts.

Hubs

SRT now have 47 Photo ID Catalogues, which were all utilised in 2023, covering seals from the Isle of Man to France and South Wales, as well as the Channel Isles to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The catalogues are run by incredible volunteers led by our dedicated and wonderful Photo ID Hub Coordinator Kate Williams. These teams communicate with each other through our free Facebook Workplace Platform. This allows our volunteer network to share new seal IDs, so we can make matches between the different Photo ID catalogues. We also share engagement wording, approach and tone, to help us with effective conservation actions which avoids us all duplicating effort by reinventing wheels. This internal communication platform makes us all more efficient and keeps us better informed.

Volunteers

Our charity makes a major contribution to marine conservation nationally. This is only possible thanks to the generous, ongoing and long term contributions made by multiple hub, administrative and specialist key volunteers, data processors and surveyors . We are hugely grateful to every single one of our amazing volunteers who are too numerous to name individually. Between them our volunteers:

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STAPIP boat survey volunteer team

Charity Achievements and Activities

In total our extensive SRT team organised, delivered and participated in 740 activities in 2023, to give seals a voice and share key conservation messages with a much wider audience by delivering more events online than ever before. Our charity Founder and Director, Sue Sayer MBE, is passionate about urgently mitigating the impacts of climate change. She has committed to being ‘flight free’ and made the decision to only attend events online wherever possible. This will reduce our charity’s carbon footprint and ensure that we can fit in the maximum amount of conservation action possible. This wastes less time travelling and creates fewer emissions.

Summary

Focusing our time online improved our 2023 engagement and reach. Whilst most activities were based in Cornwall , we spread our influence further online with 257 UK and 80 global (more than double that of 2022) activities! Sue has now presented in 6 continents (Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North and South America). Her next target is Antarctica!

In 2023, our activity beneficiaries total increased again to an impressive 29,183 people . This included 1894 0 to 16 year olds ; 371 17 to 24 year olds and 26,918 25+ year olds . This is a massive achievement considering how small our paid team is (1.5fte). This shows just how much our volunteer team have stepped up, been empowered and taken on the role of public engagement. It has been wonderful to see key volunteers thrive, stepping out of their comfort

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zone to be wonderful ambassadors and advocates for the seals they love so much. Thank you to each and every one of them! Seals support all our health and mental wellbeing.

Our social media engagement continued to expand in 2023, with at least one post most days across all four of our online platforms:

By the end of 2023 we had 18,313 followers , an increase of 1,654 achieved without any paid marketing. Increasing social media and YouTube channel engagement will continue to be a key target for 2024.

SRT Charity Achievements and Activities in 2023 included:

Talks: 69 (over one a week)

We organised and delivered 69 talks for a wide range of different audiences from adults to 4 year olds. This is exemplified by talks for the Pinniped Entanglement Group and Respect the Wild; two global NGOs organised from N and S America, the Centre for International Environmental Law , a Moroccan University on marine mammal bycatch, Seal Society of San Diego Docents and 60 first graders at the Pace Academy in Atlanta Georgia. In total SRT delivered 7 school talks and has ambitions to increase these in 2024. Talks were delivered to a range of statutory bodies, including 3 talks to the Defra Marine and Fisheries Team , Welsh Police Rural Affairs and Wildlife Crime Marine Mammal and EPS Group , UK MPA Officers and the Welsh Police Marine Partnership Against Wildlife Crime .

Peter Perkins giving a U3A talk in Penzance

Governing bodies such as British Canoeing and the Cornwall Pilot Gig Association requested presentations, along with multiple voluntary conservation organisations or events including: the Wildlife and Countryside LINK (WCL), National Trust (NT), Seal Alliance MasterClass and SharePoint sessions , Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) ShoreWatch team , Operation

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Seabird , Cornwall Marine Liaison Group , Cornwall Marine and Coastal Code Group (CMCCG) Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s (CWT) YourShore Conference , CWT Marine Strandings Network Forum (CWTMSN), South West Marine Ecosystems (SWME) Conference and SWME Webinars on plastics and seals, Hayle Health and Wellbeing Festival , British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) multiple MasterClasses for vets and interns, the Cornish Seal Sanctuary (CSS) staff, the Cornwall Plastic Pollution Coalition (CPPC); Plastic Free Penzance Group , Hayle Towans Partnership (HTP), local conservation groups including: Wild Roseland and Lundy and community groups and businesses such as the University of the 3[rd] Age and Carbis Bay Hotel . In addition, several Universities requested input such as the University of Exeter (Entanglement and Disturbance), Plymouth University (Marine Issues) and Halesowen College (Careers). Huge thanks to our amazing volunteer speaker team who delivered SRT’s talks: Jeremy Gilson, Carole Anne Lee, Kerstin Hartmann, Peter Perkins, Sue Sayer MBE and Rob Wells.

Workshops/Training: 20

We were very excited to expand our partnership with the Field Studies Council (FSC) to create a second new course in 2023 for their online Ecoskills programme . As an FSC Associate Tutor, Sue re-ran her course ‘Discovering UK Seals’ twice in 2023, in May and September. Participants spent a minimum of 2 to 3 hours a week online with a weekly zoom talk and Q&A sessions with Sue. The course lasted 4 weeks, covering Biology, Ecology, Species ID and Conservation . Sue also wrote her second course ‘Seal Field Skills to Inform Conservation’ (4 weeks of input on Surveying Seals, Recording Seals, Using Field Evidence to Illustrate Issues and Influence Decision Making and Photo Identification ), which ran for the first time in November 2023. In 2023 we’ve had 139 course participants add to their knowledge base about seals. Sue thoroughly enjoyed delivering these three courses and cannot thank the FSC’s Ellen Monaghan and Dan Asaw enough for supporting her to run these Ecoskills courses.

Field Studies Council SRT Seal Course Framework

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In 2023, Sue Sayer delivered online input for the ‘Seals’ and ‘Seabird’ modules for the Wildlife Safe Scheme (WiSe) across the UK. This included delivery on the WiSe Adventure and Top Up courses, a WiSe Standard Boat Operator course and a Harbour Commissioner course for the Falmouth team.

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WiSe Boat Course
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Units from SRT’s Ecology and Conservation Course (for the ‘Not in Education and Training’ cohort of students) have been delivered by Cornwall Marine Network’s Cornwall Marine Academy (CMA) team during 2023.

Our ongoing, free, on demand, online volunteer training continued to be popular. We had a total of 109 people signed up on the course by the end of 2023. As ever, we continued to deliver online PID sessions for Hub’s support and skills training. We ran 4 online PID Hub Sessions (in March, June, September and December) with additional input for the St Austell Bay and Lizard Hub teams, as well as in-field training by our volunteer team across a range of survey sites. Huge thanks to all our volunteers who have spread the word so effectively and recruited new Hub team members. You are a wonderful asset to our seal team!

SRT partnered with the Cornwall Marine and Coastal Code Group, BDMLR, Cornwall Birds (CB) CSS, CWT to deliver a workshop for the St Ives Bay Operators covering key species they encounter and best practice messaging to keep these creatures safe and thriving.

We still run Crowdfunder training about how to run a successful campaign. In 2023 this was shared with Cornwall Climate Care’s Ellie Bearcroft .

Funded by the National Wildlife Crime Unit , Sue, Colin Speedie and Abby Crosby trained as ‘Expert Witnesses’ for marine wildlife crime cases. Thanks to Gareth for setting this up.

2023 also saw Sue being asked by George Bevan to write a new online training course on seals for Conservation Diver . The course content and resources has been completed and will run for the first time in 2024, so watch this space.

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Stalls/Events: 11

Our volunteers Charlotte and Terry Carne supported by Ranger Lauren, ensured SRT had stalls at 11 events. As part of the national Operation Seabird events SRT turned out in force at St Ives, Godrevy, Looe and Falmouth in 2023. We were delighted to attend the Screech Owl Sanctuary’s two British Wildlife Days , as well as appearing in the crowds at St Piran’s Day , Redruth and at Butterfly Conservation’s AGM. Thanks to Andrea, Andrew, Billy, Charlotte, Emily, Peter, Jasmina, Kate, Malcolm, Rob, Terry and Vanessa for facilitating these events.

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St Ives Operation Seabird Day
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It was an honour when Harriet Tatlow asked if she could run another fundraising event on behalf of the Carbis Bay Hotel for SRT. Of course we jumped at the chance. There were lots of different fundraising elements, from a wild swim with Sarah Walsh the Cornish Kelpie, a marine plastic art activity led by Emily Barker, a cake competition, a raffle, an SRT stall with leaflets and merchandise, a book reading for children and our 7 Wonders of the Seal World talk by Sue. It was such a great day. Thank you to Harriet for making this possible!

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Carbis Bay Hotel fundraiser
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SRT Annual Report 2023

Porthtowan Film Festival

Another highlight of the year was the Porthtowan Film Festival organised by the St Agnes Marine Conservation Group in November 2023. SRT attended with Septimus, our seal skeleton, exhibition banners, ghost gear seals and display items to support and engage people after they had watched SRT’s film about Septimus: Some Seal’s life and immortality story.

Field Engagement: 217 (plus frequent conversations held by Claire, the Looe Island Warden, that have not been included here).

Whilst out surveying, our enthusiastic volunteers frequently engage face-to-face with members of the public. These opportunities help to win hearts and minds to our shared seal conservation cause. People love hearing about the seals they are watching and celebrity seal stories. We began formally recording this in 2022 and, in total, 33 of our inspiring volunteers had conversations with 2662 members of the public . Thank you everyone for spreading the word at a time, and in a place, where people are interested and eager to learn.

Of particular note was the public engagement forced upon BDMLR, CWT Seaquest and SRT’s Pentire Hub Team. On 11/09/23 a small white coated pup was born to a previously unidentified dark mum on a publicly accessible beach. Fearful that this pup would not be able to feed uninterrupted, so be too underweight to survive its first winter, SRT set up a schedule for monitoring mum, pup and their dominant male beachmaster. Volunteers from all organisations were asked to sign up to record progress and interactions, as well as manage people around them, by talking about the trio’s need for space and peace to feed and rest. Over 15 days, 35 different volunteers signed up for 75 shifts, covering 232 hours to keep these seals safe. Whilst on site, volunteers engaged with at least 837 members of the public visiting the site, asking them to keep back from the cliff edge, watch quietly and avoid access to the beach at low tide. We were all delighted to see a very fat moulted chonk pup wean from its mother on day 15. This was a miraculous team effort with a fabulous outcome for all.

Mum and pup Day 1, 13 & 15

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Exhibitions: 1 Wight Biodiversity at Carisbrook Priory

In January Septimus travelled by land and sea to the Isle of Wight, accompanied by Augusta (SRT’s 3 day old pup skeleton), to be the focus of an exhibition organised by Martyn Ridgley from Wight Biodiversity . They were complemented by multiple display banners to raise awareness about our incredible, native, heritage and globally rare grey seals. SRT’s exhibits were visited by several SRT volunteers and Sue even gave an online talk for visitors present at the priory. Septimus and Augusta finally returned in September to be skeletons in Sue’s lounge in Cornwall.

Delivering an online School Session for KS 1/2

School Sessions: 8

In September Lesley Fitt stepped up and offered to promote our schools’ sessions. Educating the next generation in all things ‘seals and marine conservation’ is key. SRT’s Vice Chair Kate Hockley, attended a face to face careers session for Penpol School. Sue covered the online sessions for home schoolers, as well as schools including St Columb Major, the Rainbow Academy, Roskear, Mount Hawke and Crofty Mat; but the biggest session was for 60 6 year olds at the Pace Academy in Atlanta Georgia, USA . Fortunately Sue had multiple seal friends with her that day in the form of grey and harbour seal puppets, Emily Barker’s life sized seal pup, juvenile and adult as well as numerous artefacts to keep everyone’s attention. Sue was blown away by the children’s amazing confidence and questions. The feedback was wonderful (last on page 23). Do tell your local schools that SRT can do online talks and please guide them to our website for more information and how to contact us!

Photo ID Projects (PIP) organised day long surveys: 20

We were delighted to complete 9 day-long, systematic, boat-based Photo ID transect surveys (CASPIP, STAPIP and POLPIP) along a 115km stretch of the north Cornish coast, involving a total of 96 volunteers . We are eternally grateful to Atlantic Diving/Newquay Safaris and Fishing for enabling us to have subsidised boat charter rates for these surveys. We

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also successfully completed 10 Looe Island Photo ID Project (LISPIP) surveys undertaken by 92 volunteers . We were very sad to say goodbye to our long-term boatman, Dave Butters, RIP. As always highlights of our PIP surveys include spectacular seals, cetaceans, nesting, feeding, loafing seabirds, other marine megafauna, great company and lots of yummy cake!

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Spectacular CASPIP survey sights
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Spectacular LISPIP survey sights
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Meetings: 322

It is hard to believe that we could surpass the number of meetings SRT attended in 2022 but we did, partly because Sue had additional support from key volunteers Andy, Dan, Kate H, Kate W and Peter. Together we covered meetings with:

Dignitaries King Charles III (see page 37);

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Politicians George Eustice twice and Sarah Olney. Sue was asked to draft a script for a Seal Protection Parliamentary Debate delivered by Sarah on 26/06/23;

Statutory agencies Cornwall Marine and Coastal Partnership Planning, Cornwall Marine Liaison Group, Clean Catch UK, Defra, Devon and Cornwall Police, Environment Agency (Natural Capital Ecosystems Assessment), Falmouth Town Council and Harbour Authority, Hayle Town Council, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Marine Management Organisation, Marine Partnership Against Wildlife Crime, National Wildlife Crime Unit, Natural England, Office for Environmental Protection, Operation Seabird, Operation Seabird Cymru, Sea Mammal Research Unit, South West Coast Path Association, UNESCO Lundy Licencing Scheme, Welsh Police Mammals and EPS Group and Wildlife and Countryside LINK;

Higher Education institutes Cornwall College Newquay, University of Bristol, University of Exeter, Oxford University, Plymouth University, Portsmouth University, University of Morocco, University of Southampton and the University of the West of England;

Students Eden, Ellie, Jeremy, Laura, Mathilde, Milly, Poppy and Scarlett;

Businesses Coral Covers, Angling Trust, Attic Design and Print, Bowgie Inn, Brian Leith Productions, British Canoeing, Carbis Bay Estate, Cornwall FLOW, Cornwall Live, Easy Fundraising, Field Studies Council, Nick Cunard, NovaTomato, Padstow Sealife Safaris, Planetary Technology, Primary PC and multiple St Ives Bay Operators;

Artists Cornish Jewellery, Elspeth Stevenson, Emily Barker, John Parkes from Animal Friends, Karen Gaudern, Kurt Jackson, Michelle Costello, MoonSeals, Mungo Lils and Sarah Bell;

Charitable organisations BDMLR, Centre for International Environmental Law, Conservation Diver, Cornish Pilot Gig Association, Cornish Seal Sanctuary, Cornwall Carbon Scrutiny Group, Cornwall Marine and Coastal Code Group, Cornwall and Devon Wildlife Trusts, East Marine Ecosystems, Flotilla, Friends of Horsey Seals, Hands Off Mother Earth, Hayle Towans Partnership, Marine Animal Rescue Coalition, Mounts Bay Marine Group, National Trust, Pinniped Entanglement Group, Respect the Wildlife, Sea Changers, Seal Alliance Executive, SW Marine Ecosystems, Team Walrus, Wales Wildlife Trust, Wight Biodiversity, Wildlife and Countryside LINK (11 Groups), Wildlife Safe Scheme and Wight Biodiversity.

Reports: 27

Natural England commissioned 2 reports from SRT in 2023. One ‘Marine Life and Human Activity ‘Other Species’ Report by Sarah Millward and the second ‘Network of Sensitive Seal Sites in the SW UK ’ Report by Sue Sayer MBE. Our amazing team collated data to write additional routine reports including 4 CASPIP reports by Sarah Millward; 3 STAPIP reports by Mike Taylor; 2 POLPIP reports by Sarah Millward and 11 LISPIP reports by Martin Gregory. In addition we published our SRT Annual report for 2022, along with the SW Marine Ecosystems Report on Seals for 2022 , both written by Sue Sayer. Sue also input to the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network Report for 2022. Dr Mel Broadhurst (our Channel Isles volunteer) compiled our 2022 Census report. The incredible Kate Williams produced Hub Summary reports for North Devon 2022, Mounts Bay 2021 and Pentire 2022 . This is a massive achievement – well done everyone!

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Seal SW Session: 12, Seal SW Newsletters: 12 and Wild Seal Supporter Updates: 4

Sue continues to host our monthly online Seal SW Session for up to 50 people. Our monthly online presentations are a vital archive of all our charity’s ongoing activities. Ranger Sarah compiled and circulated 12 Seal SW Newsletters . Our circulation list grew by 125 during 2023 to 1,152 subscribers . Director Sue wrote 4 Wild Seal Supporter and Adoption Scheme Updates, which went to 205 recipients (up by 26 at the start of the year), summarising quarterly exclusive information about our adopted seals, for a scheme run by Karen Gaudern.

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Seals SW Newsletter example
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Resources: 3 New

We were very excited at the start of 2023, as Sue’s book ‘Seal Secrets’ was re-printed for the 3[rd] time as a bumper edition, because it included a substantial update and extra content. Climate Change is a topical and key issue affecting all seals. Consequently SRT decided to create new resources, summarising the impact of climate change on our native seals in the form of ‘Sea Change: Seals’ films (edited by Barry Williams) and a leaflet (designed by Milly Hall), as described on page 4. The Seal Alliance Watching Seals Well leaflets and Give Seals Space signs were re-ordered in 2023 and sent out nationally. As they are Defra backed, they have proved extremely popular across the UK for a second year running. Our ‘Good Neighbours’ toolkit was developed as part of our ‘Space for Seals’ project, forming a new part of our best practice social media messaging. The wonderful Mungo Lils on the Hill continue to sell SRT’s Lizard Seal Pack and Stickers. Volunteer Cliff Davies from the Looe Marine Conservation Group designed SRT’s Watercraft Stickers, outlining best practice around seals and these continue to be distributed nationally. Volunteer Aidan Botha’s wonderful poster and social media graphic for our Flying Rings campaign continued to be shared widely in 2023.

Media Coverage: 63

Our media coverage was extensive and began early in 2023, as All About Animals Radio interviewed Sue to create a podcast about our wonderful seals. Olivier Vergnault from Cornwall Live did a comprehensive interview with Sue which was aired in February as an

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article and on their YouTube channel. The SW Coast Path Association released a Podcast interview with Sue in March. As the Defra Marine and Coastal Wildlife Code was released in April 2023, Sue was asked to create a short film to publicise this on social media, working to their script. Thanks to Polly Ford for helping with the filming. Coverage appeared nationally on BBC Breakfast News, as well as on regional news channels . Julie Skentelbery from BBC Radio Cornwall interviewed Sue in July to hear about the sad story of adult male ‘Commuter’, who had been trapped in a plastic ring since 2017. This was swiftly followed by BBC Radio Cornwall’s James Dundon, who shared the story of BDMLR’s epic rescue of adult female ‘Wings’ from her flying ring in St Ives Harbour (see page 34). This story went viral with over 1 million hits on BBC Radio Cornwall’s social media channels alone! Next came interviews with James Churchfield and Mel on BBC Radio Cornwall about the impacts seals face around our coastline. In September Liz Howell created an audio recording about the impacts of climate change on coastal communities for a new exhibition called Storm Warning, featuring in both the Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea and at Newlyn Art Gallery . We were hugely grateful to BBC Radio Cornwall’s Julie Skentelbery for creating a proactive piece for the start of the pupping season, about what pups need and how we can all best help them. In October our subscription payment providers, Paywhirl , requested an interview which was published as an online blog, covering our Wild Seal Supporter and Adoption Scheme. SRT also provided content, graphics and photos for an article outlining best practice around seals for COAST magazine . By far the most extensive media SRT was involved in during 2023 was coverage of the controversial marine geoengineering experiment planned by Planetary Technology, to release thousands of tonnes of Magnesium Hydroxide into St Ives Bay as a climate change solution (see page 18). Coverage of this began in March 2023 and continued throughout the year. Various elements of the story were covered by The Times Newspaper, ITV Westcountry,

BBC Spotlight (x3), St Ives Times and Echo, the Cornishman, the Guardian, the Sunday Post and the BBC SW Politics Show, where Sue appeared live with Defra minister Rebecca Pow and two UK MPs . In addition, Sue was interviewed by Canadian Journalist Avis Favaro (shared by CTV News ) and at the end of the year by Yannic Rack for the Hakai Magazine .

BBC Politics Show SW : Water Special

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Thanks to our partners at the Pinniped Entanglement Group who continue to cover our stories, tracking entangled seal wounds over the long term in their biannual newsletters. Articles containing input by SRT about seals and seal conservation appeared in Launceston Life , the Guardian (in a piece featuring CWT’s Nature Reserve on Looe Island), a blog for Wildlife and Countryside LINK on the EFRA Committee recommendations, BBC Wildlife Magazine (written by our patron, Gillian Burke), the Sunday Post about Unmanned Aerial Vehicle impacts on seals, as well as the Mammal Society’s News and Updates about seal pups and the pupping season.

Planetary Technology’s (PT) Marine Geoengineering Project

SRT first heard about PT’s Marine Geoengineering Project for St Ives Bay on 19/01/23. This is a Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) experiment that could set a global precedent for this industry. 2023 proved quite a roller coaster ride as we engaged deeper with this project. A summary of SRT’s engagement and scrutiny of this project can be seen here. To cut a very long story short, by the end of 2023 Sue had over 2100 files on her PC amounting to 10+ GB of data about this experiment. It has proved to be an extremely time consuming and stressful distraction from our routine seal conservation work and we are hugely grateful to NGO Hands Off Mother Earth and the Centre for International Environmental Law who helped us at SRT get our heads around the big picture of carbon credit projects of this kind. As a result of connections with partners, SRT became a founding partner of the Cornwall Carbon Scrutiny Group (CCSG) working alongside the Keep Our Sea Chemical Free (KOSCF) campaign group. In addition to all the media coverage summarised above, SRT attended a public consultation meeting in Hayle and wrote 4 letters to the Environment Agency and copied to multiple statutory agencies.

Examples of letters sent to Statutory Agencies

In addition, SRT commissioned a science report from a local volunteer geochemist , held 2 face to face meetings with PT’s CEO and PR representative , consulted with the University of Exeter , read numerous journal papers on the topic of CDR and OAE, briefed our local MP

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about the project, spoke at a KOSCF Protest (the 2[nd] highest attended in Cornwall in recent years), provided PT with marine mammal monitoring protocols , submitted an input to the United Nationals consultation about ‘Removal activities under Article 6.4 mechanism’ , met multiple times with SRT’s new science experts on this issue – Dr Ian Hendy from Portsmouth University (a blue carbon and habitat restoration expert) and Dr David Santillo from the International Greenpeace Lab at Exeter University (a geoengineering expert), presented at Hayle Town Council and Hayle Towans Partnership meetings , wrote 2 letters to South West Water, whose infrastructure was being used to diffuse the Magnesium Hydroxide (MH), requested a literature review from PT about the science around the project which they refused to undertake, developed a nature based alternative proposal to restore blue carbon habitat in St Ives Bay to achieve the same outcome but with multiple additional biodiversity benefits, attended a meeting with SWW’s Chief Operating Officer and two colleagues , as well as engaging with the Water Research Centre to provide science and data about St Ives Bay seals and seal senses. By the end of 2023, the Environment Agency had still not issued a marine licence for the pilot geoengineering experiment to go ahead. This saga is set to continue into 2024 and beyond.

Deep Learning Computer Vision Project

This project that we began in 2022 with Seb East from the University of Bristol is part of a long term, three-phase project aimed at the development of bespoke automated photo ID software for SRT. Phase 1 was completed very successfully in 2023 and SRT volunteers now have access to ‘Seal Detector’ software to auto extract seal images from our survey photos for including into PowerPoint albums, saving albumising volunteers lots of hours of manual processing, especially at the larger seal sites! Massive thanks to every student and volunteer for helping Seb East to see this project through to such a successful outcome for us all!

Seal Detector Software in use, auto extracting seal crops

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Feedback about SRT Activities (don’t just take our word for it!)

We always do our best to present exciting, interesting and informative input about seals in multiple ways. We deliver this to a huge variety of different audiences ranging from statutory agency consultations to schools. This is all aimed at promoting peoples’ understanding about, and appreciation of, our native, heritage, speciality seals and their precious marine habitat. We always ask for honest feedback from participants and organisers about what went well and what we need to improve on. Our delivery team got some lovely feedback in 2023, some of which is listed below:

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photographs, charts and information. The concentrated interest and response of the largest audience I think we have ever had was great. There were 84 people present! And comments after the event were so positive about what SRT are doing as a group and you two as individuals have been really quite moving. Rob and Kerstin, your empathy for seals came through and your far reaching knowledge was much appreciated

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powers! Your presentation was incredibly engaging, witty, and a great learning experience for our young ones. It was the talk of the entire grade throughout the school day

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Seal Data Outputs (reports included above)

Surveys and Volunteers

In 2023 we received records from 252 different volunteers, from which we were able to process 4,567 discrete surveys (an average of 13 site specific surveys each and every day ) from 328 different locations . Our Sanctuaries at Sea Ranger, Sarah, coordinated our quarterly SW Seal Census, of which all four were completed in January, April, July and October. Thank you to all our amazing volunteers who took part and made these possible.

Age and Sex Classes

On average 9.2 seals were recorded , ranging from a minimum of no seals observed to a maximum of 458 seals counted during a single survey ( down from 557 in 2021 and 519 in 2022 ). Of seals that we were able to classify according to their age, 66% were adults and 34% juveniles, moulted pups or white coated pups . Only adults can be reliably sexed, so of all adults that we could confidently sex 56% were males and 44% females, which is exactly the same proportion as recorded in 2021 and 2022, despite our huge survey effort and datasets.

White-coated pups by Sue Sayer

Grey Seal Pups

White-coated, maternally dependent, grey seal pups (WCPs) were recorded on 581 occasions at 39 different locations around the southwest. Most were recorded on the north coast, but there were 32 sightings of WCPs recorded at 11 different sites on the south coast of Cornwall and Devon. WCPs represented just over 1% of all seals observed. The maximum number of WCPs recorded at a single site was 15 at North Cornwall. 5 or more WCPs were recorded 37 times at 10 different pupping sites at the North Cornwall complex (4 sites) , West Cornwall (2 sites), West Cornwall East (3 sites) and West Penwith North (1 site). LP316 ‘Lucky bunting’, a seal rescued in 2016, was not seen with a pup in 2023 (this would have been her fourth). Our world record breaking seal mum ‘Ghost’ had her 20[th] pup in 21 years , back at her normal

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pupping site having breached her site fidelity tradition in 2021. She was photographed on 20/10/23 mating with her current beachmaster male ‘Snake’ for pup 21, should she survive another year. We have everything crossed! 94% of the unique WCPs were born on north coast sites with 6% on the south coast. Historically between 2010 and 2016, most pups were born in October followed by November. In 2022, most pups were born in September followed by August (but with only 4 more pups born in August than October). In 2023, most pups were born in September, but there were 23 more pups born across the SW in August compared to October. Pupping season has moved substantially earlier, creating temporal and spatial overlap with the peak tourist season, which is problematic.

Harbour Seals and Harbour Seal Pups

Our observations included 25 records with 44 harbour seal sightings (down from 85 in 2021 and 29 in 2022). 12 records were single individuals up to a maximum of 4 individuals seen on 04/02/23 in South Devon. Harbour seals were recorded at 8 different locations all at south coast locations across Cornwall, Devon and the Solent.

After 2 successfully weaned harbour seal pups, observed with their mother Serena in 2021 and 2022, there was a potential sighting of ‘Serena’ and a pup in 2023 but this couldn’t be confirmed . There were no sightings of the legendary, routinely sighted, adult male common seal called ‘Ellis’ after February 2022. He was the suspected father of Serena’s 2021/22 pups.

Ellis (adult male harbour seal) 20/07/20 by James Broughton

Photos, Albums and Identifications

Our PID Hubs continue to be highly productive, processing an incredible 105,235 photos in 2023 into 1,899 survey albums (including 416 from 2021 and 2022). This enabled SRT to generate a total of 11,409 seal identifications, of which 84% were re-identifications (which is surprisingly consistent compared to 87% in 2021/22 and 86% in 2020). This included a maximum of 145 different individual seal identifications in a single survey (5 less than our previous maximum in 2022) that were confirmed by two experienced volunteers. Over 100

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different seals were identified on 3 separate surveys, all at the West Cornwall site. Of all the seals re-identified in 2023, 34 have been identified for at least 20 years by the SRT network . This is a tremendous achievement in itself! 5 were seals first added to our catalogues back in 2000 (1 male S7 and 4 females S3 / S4 / S5 / S31); 6 were seals that were first identified in 2001 (1 male DP193 and 5 females S16 / S26 / S32 / S49 / LP12); 9 were seals first identified in 2002 (2 males S80 / S92 and 7 females S46 / S54 / S60 / S62 / S74 / S84 / S891) and 14 were seals added to catalogues in 2003 (2 males DP122 / DP120 and 12 females NF4 / S88 / S89 / S100 / S104 / S107 / S111 / S112 / S113 / S114 / S119 / S123).

In total, 3,175 unique seals were identified in 2023. 58 seals from 7 sites were identified 20 or more times from the Lizard, Looe, North Devon, Pentire, Roseland, St Ives and West Cornwall Hubs. This is a reflection of the frequent survey effort at these sites (all are surveyed on multiple days every week) and the utterly incredible ID processing hub team effort. Well done everyone and thank you for making these incredible records possible!

We continue to partner with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network and in 2023 4 dead seals were identified from their carcasses (1 male and 3 females). DP2004 ‘Watermark alien’ adult male (First live sighting 28/12/17 West Cornwall Sue Sayer and Jes Hirons; Identified 71 times all at West Cornwall by 17 different SRT volunteers; Last live sighting 01/12/22 West Cornwall Sue Sayer and Karen Gaudern; Dead 08/02/23 Mounts Bay Constance Morris); S2931 ‘Three bars’ adult female (First live sighting 24/02/21 St Ives Peter Nason and Eli Kalcikova; Identified twice at West Cornwall and in St Ives Bay by 4 different SRT volunteers; Last live sighting 13/12/21 West Cornwall Sue Sayer and Kate Hockley; Dead 04/03/23 Carbis Bay Dan Jarvis); ROF124 ‘Tulip placeholder’ adult female (First live sighting 30/08/12 Fal Jes Hirons; Identified 102 times at 3 locations on the south coast by 24 different SRT volunteers; Last live sighting 09/01/23 Roseland Kerstin Hartmann; Dead 14/06/23 St Michael’s Mount CWTMSN) and S340 ‘Swims’ adult female (First live sighting 25/11/07 West Cornwall Sue Sayer; Identified 111 times across 6 north coast sites by 42 different SRT volunteers; Last live sighting 31/08/23 West Cornwall Sue Sayer; Dead 19/11/23 Perranporth CWTMSN). RIP beautiful seals – you have taught us so much.

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S340 Swims ID calendar and
2018 pup by Sue Sayer
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Two additional dead, tagged ex-rescue, rehab and released seals were also identified as ‘ Wasabi’ (released in 2023) and ‘Jonesy’ (released in 2018).

Ex-rescued, Rehabilitated and Released Seals

SRT 2023 data included 732 sightings of 126 different rear flipper tagged, rehabilitated seals (around 2% of all seals observed ) from all around our southwest coast. Most of our tagged seals would have been released in North Devon or from the northwest/southwest Cornish coast but there were three notable exceptions. ‘Sate’ and ‘Christine’ were released in France and ‘Crater’ who was released from Courtown in SE Ireland .) The longest identified, and so potentially longest surviving ex-rescued seals traced back to their rehabilitation records, are DP193 ‘Lewis’ (an adult male released in 2001) and S123 ‘Puffa’ (an adult female released in 2003). Lewis’ IDs are fascinating, as he has defected from the north to the south coast.

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Lewis ID calendar St Austell
Bay 06/01/23 by Rob Wells
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A maximum of 10 different ex-rescue, rehabilitated and released seals were recorded on one survey on 20/10/23 at West Cornwall by Sue Sayer and Kate Hockley. 16 different exrehabilitated seals were identified 10 or more times , including 5 identified over 20 times in 2023. These were ‘Orion’, ‘Pangolin’, ‘Prudie’, ‘Snail octopus’, ‘Crater’ and ‘Archer lady’ .

SRT continue to use the confidential Googlesheet created by Paul Oaten from RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Hospital that logs all seal admissions and, in 2023, Katherine Thomas from the Cornish Seal Sanctuary has continued to deliver regular and excellent input at our monthly Seals SW Sessions. We are grateful to British Divers Marine Life Rescue who do the majority of seal pup rescues, then triage and treat most of the seals rescued at the BDMLR Cornwall Seal Hospital , before they are transported elsewhere for longer term rehabilitation.

Entangled Seals

To balance our resightings of rescued, rehabilitated and released seals, which reflect a positive intervention by people, were our observations of seals that have experienced

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entanglement at some point in their lives. SRT record entangled seals as ‘currently entangled’ or as ‘ex-entangled’ – the latter based on evidence of a healed wound and no visible entangling material. This can be harder to judge than might be imagined. Seals having experienced or still experiencing entanglement were recorded 732 times (2% of all seals observed) during 407 surveys up to a maximum of 15 different individuals in a single survey – recorded on 19/01/23 at West Cornwall by Kate Hockley. 10 or more different entangled seals were recorded 3 times, all at West Cornwall, during the year. In total 81 unique entangled seals were identified from our catalogues.

A new entanglement issue that emerged in late 2021 continued to be observed in 2022 – that of seals being hooked in line mostly from our local sustainable inshore mackerel fishery. In 2023 13 different seals were recorded as hooked, ranging from apparently single or multiple hooked adult seals to moulted pups in need of rescue. We know from our long-term seal data that peak seal numbers have shifted earlier from March/April to December/January. In contrast, we have been told that the mackerel fishery has moved later in the year, from starting in the summer to commencing in November. This has created a temporal and spatial overlap between the mackerel fishery and peak seal numbers that never used to occur. This has presumably caused this new and emerging issue of hooked seals .

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Hooked seals
09/02/23 W Cornwall Sue Sayer (adult male)
26/10/23 W Penwith S BDMLR (pup’s bottom!)
Photos by Sue Sayer & BDMLR Medics (Inset)
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SRT continue to share data and entangled seal experiences as members of the Clean Catch UK National Steering Group and the global Pinniped Entanglement Group of which Sue and Dan Jarvis are members.

Bycatch includes the live entangled animals described above, who have most likely interacted with lost fishing gear. It also refers to dead seals accidentally caught up in live operational fishing gear. We were shocked to discover from the 2020 Special Committee on Seals report that 85% of all UK seal bycatch occurred in our southwest region (ICES area VII). One bycaught seal in 2023 was found in St Ives Harbour in unfortunate circumstances. It died after

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becoming entangled in loose gear wrapped around a fishing boat’s propellor before the skipper could release the gear at low tide.

Juvenile bycaught in St Ives by CWTMSN

Disturbance

From our routine data (not effort corrected) serious level 3 disturbance is described as seals leaving the land by tombstoning (leaping from height) or in a stampede (rushing over sand/rocks) into the sea; crash diving at sea; displacement from sea areas where humans were present or seals being fed. There were 155 serious disturbance incidents . In total, level 3 disturbance affected a shocking total of 1,328 seals in 2023. This ranged from a minimum of 1 seal in 51 incidents to a maximum of 163 seals on 17/12/23 stampeding into the sea at West Cornwall East in a single incident. This was caused by people accessing the beach.

During & after 17/12/23 by SRT

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This incident occurred within a Site of Special Scientific Interest where seals are a monitored feature. This makes it an offence to disturb seals here. As a result of SRT reporting this incident to Natural England (the enforcement agency) action was taken against the perpetrators.

20 or more seals were seriously disturbed stampeding into the sea on 14 different occasions at 9 different sensitive seals sites in the North Cornwall, Pentire, Roseland, West Cornwall and West Cornwall East areas.

Where possible, disturbance incidents are now routinely followed up by members of our newly formed volunteer Conservation Team . Case studies of disturbance and data continue to be shared with various statutory agencies, including the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, Natural England, Operation Seabird and DEFRA . In 2022, Natural England provided a specific email address for SRT to report serious disturbance incidents within designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest. We continued to use this in 2023 to ensure audit trails and case studies can be built up as intelligence and evidence for potential action and future prioritisation.

In 2023 SRT have been liaising with Operation Seabird , the Marine Management Organisation and Whale and Dolphin Conservation to explore the possibility of a national online, standardised recording format for marine wildlife disturbance (into which the existing Cornwall Marine and Coastal Code data set can be merged). SRT’s disturbance data is routinely shared with statutory agencies, NGOs, governing bodies and landowners to inform the efficacy of mitigation strategies. Throughout 2023 SRT continued to fund and distribute the Defra-endorsed Seal Alliance ‘Watching Seals Well’ leaflets and ‘Give Seals Space’ signs across the UK. We were delighted when, in May 2023, Defra launched their new Marine and Coastal Wildlife Code (a recommendation of our 2022 People Protecting Precious Places research report). SRT were asked to deliver the online and live press coverage for the launch .

Defra’s Marine & Coastal Wildlife Code

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To build on our awareness raising letters to wildlife tour operators in 2022, working alongside the Cornwall Marine and Coastal Code Group, SRT met with St Ives Bay operators to explore ways of raising the bar between current practice and Defra’s new Code. This work is ongoing.

Policy and Conservation Actions

Consultations: 35

SRT used data from our amazing volunteer citizen science network to submit evidence to 35 policy and planning consultations . These varied hugely but could be classified into 5 categories: Conservation ( 7 : Defra Environment and Rural Affairs Inquiry on Marine Mammals; Defra Marine and Coastal Wildlife Code; Defra 30 by 30; Parliamentary Debate on Seal Protection; Office for Environmental Protection on Nature Recovery; Cornwall Council’s Nature Recovery Strategy and the Mounts Bay Charter of the sea); Issue specific policies ( 6 : Parliamentary Plastic Pollution Debate; Environment Agency Storm Outflows; Charity Commission on Trustee Roles; Oceana Oil and Gas licences; Defra Plastic Free Wet Wipes; Defra Lead pollution); Developments ( 10 ; Ardesier Port; Arcardis Polperro; MMO Marine Spatial Plan SW; Dean Quarry; White Cross Wind Farm; SeaLINK in Kent; N Devon Seaweed Farm; Kingsbridge Estuary netting; Gerrans Bay Seaweed Farms x 2), Fisheries ( 7 ; Marine Protected Areas bottom trawling; Sandeel closures in the North Sea; Crab and Lobsters Fisheries Management Plan; Remote Electronic Monitoring; Finfish Licencing; Discards) and Other ( 5 ; Charity publicity; Charity Commission; Citizen Science; OCR Natural History GCSE; Defra Stakeholders).

UK Seal Protection Debate drafted by SRT

It was an honour to be asked to draft the Seal Protection Parliamentary Debate speech for Sarah Olney MP delivered on 27/06/23 in Westminster Hall. You can watch this here.

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This is the hardest and most mundane aspect of our charity’s work but it is undoubtedly the most important thing we do. It means all the data and expertise created by our huge volunteer team effort is communicated through the proper channels, where it counts, having a difference in planning and policy at a national and international decision making level . All this is done monthly during or between our monthly Steering Group Meetings . In 2023 SRT were co-opted to participate in the Wildlife and Countryside LINK (WCL), providing seal expertise to the Marine Mammal, Marine and Bycatch Groups . It quickly became apparent that joining this well established voice for nature group would substantially increase our conservation efforts and impact, so a decision was made to pay their membership fee (albeit at a vastly reduced rate, negotiated to be sustainable for our small charity over the long term). SRT now routinely input into 10 different WCL group forums.

Legislation

SRT continue to use our unique disturbance dataset to campaign to get seal disturbance made an offence (as it is with whales and dolphins), either by adding seals to the Wildlife and Countryside Act or by adding the word ‘disturbance’ to the Conservation of Seals Act. We were delighted when the EFRA Committee Inquiry on Marine Mammals Report in June made a clear recommendation that ‘in the short term, seals should be added to the list of species in Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act as soon as possible’. This confirmed what the Joint Nature Conservation Committee had already advised. We assumed we were close. However, at the final stage all the EFRA Committee recommendations were blocked by the then Environment Minister Therese Coffey, a week before she resigned. Despite this, we remain positive and determined to get seal disturbance made illegal. We are not going anywhere and will continue to campaign with the Seal Alliance to make this a reality. It is just going to take longer than we hoped.

Campaigns

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SRT’s 2023 leaflet
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SRT added a third key campaign to our portfolio for 2023 – Climate Change mitigation was added to our pre-existing work on Disturbance and Flying Rings .

Our new Sea Change: Seals films were outlined on page 4. In addition, we worked with Falmouth University student, Milly Hall, to produce a brand new accompanying ‘Sea Change: Seals’ leaflet summarising the multiple, shocking impacts of climate change on seals, as a new motivation for members of the public to commit to taking action at home, work and play to reduce their personal emissions. This was summarised by the acronym TEEMS (see page 33).

In July 2023, we created an open group on our Facebook Workplace platform to enable volunteers to share their actions and successes of the Flying Rings campaign . This was kick started by a highlight of 2023, which was the rescue of local celebrity ‘Wings’ from her flying ring in St Ives harbour by British Divers Marine Life Rescue and the Cornish Seal Sanctuary . SRT’s Photo ID work showed Wings had been trapped in her flying ring for less than 2 weeks but, despite this, rescuers discovered it was firmly stuck around her neck and could not be pulled off. This made us realise that the water resistance when swimming must wedge the ring further back and deeper into a seal’s neck tissue. Also their telescopic neck action (as they stretch forward to snatch and suck prey) narrows their neck enabling the ring to be pushed even further back. It turns out that Wings is a better conservation ambassador for her species than the rest of us humans put together ! Her rescue video on BBC Radio Cornwall’s Facebook page quickly went viral with over 1 million hits worldwide .

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Wings rescue by BDMLR/CSS
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Wings’ rescue renewed the desire of all our volunteer networks (SRT, BDMLR, CSS and Seal Alliance members) to spread the word and raise awareness of the risks posed by flying rings. Posters and metal signs of all sizes were distributed regionally, nationally and internationally by volunteers and through our partners. Shops that were seen selling flying rings were either approached in person or via email/post in a coordinated campaign asking them to say ‘No to the O’. Lizzi Larbalestier even won the ‘most sustainable float’ award in Perranporth Carnival as she distributed leaflets to the crowd chanting…’We say O…you say

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NO!’. Yorkshire Seal Group had amazing sand art communicating the campaign. We hope this will lead to reduced flying ring sales and usage, ultimately resulting in fewer lost rings being removed by volunteers from beaches and fewer new flying ringed suffering seals!

Practical Conservation Actions

We worked with a range of partners to make the southwest a safer place for seals. Examples of the kinds of action taken included:

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Highlights of 2023: Seals and People

S107 ‘Square blobs Alien’ re-identified for the first time in 16 years on 26/12/23 at West Cornwall by Sue Sayer and S119 ‘Star skateboard’ re-identified for the first time in 20 years on 07/12/23 at West Cornwall by Sue Sayer. Both these females were first identified in 2003 and Star Skateboard had only ever been identified twice – both times in 2003 but she was still recognised straight away by Sue Sayer in the field. Where have these two females been all this time?

2023 started with the momentous news that our Founder and Director Sue Sayer had been awarded an MBE for her services to wildlife conservation and protection in the King’s first New Year’s Honours list. Sue was determined to make a memorable mark at her investiture at Windsor Castle in December 2023. She commissioned local artist, friend and SRT Corporate Supporter Michelle Costello from Smartie Lids on the Beach to design and create a fascinator . This depicted Sue’s favourite and first ever re-identified seal ‘Chairlift’ from 2000, surrounded by pyroplastic rocks and ghost gear waves. This accompanied her Starry Night outfit (by Sue’s favourite artist, Van Gogh). To Sue his work is prophetic, reflecting the planetary turmoil we now find ourselves in, in terms of climate change and marine pollution (including plastics). The first thing the King noticed and asked about was Sue’s fascinator, giving her the opening needed to talk about the unique nature of each seal and the challenges being faced by their species in the wild. Huge thanks go to Gareth Richards from Gower Seal Group for nominating Sue for this award back in 2019!

Sue’s MBE Investiture accompanied by Dan Jarvis (Vice Chair), husband Chris Howell and Gareth Richards

Conclusion

It is hard to believe that such a small charity in terms of funding and paid staff can make this huge contribution to marine conservation – only made possible by our amazing volunteers!

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Seal Research Trust Let sleeping seals lie

SRT Annual Report 2023 Revenue and Expenditure Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust Fortheyear ended 31 March 2024 1024 Revenue Adopt10Th5-PrivateWSS DDnation5-Boat Dofflatsons-CoYwYatellrK'Corp)YateSwnsNshlpl Don?tyons-Prlvate L4523 OnliAeFundtai5InÈ-Fxeb￿￿kInctsmÈ 569 229 IncomefrofflProiect51Reportwtiting 1,050 392 Activitygeneiatgd Income-llerchandisesales Activitygeneiatgd IncDme-Talk&and Trainingfeeincom8&nd expense5c￿Arned Onllnefundrèign8PayPalGiving FvThd inctyne Jvmblebeelvrtdraiserincome 1.070 819 TLTrtalRevenue 56,881 Costof SalÈ$ 4IQ8 P05ta8e¢h)rgestumer¢hèndlse 5hopifyc05ts F5Ccousefee51011ectedTrpaid D¥ertoFSC TotalCostDfSa 252 1.050 7,867 Gross Surplus 49,014 Administrative Costs 8oatcharter Profes&ionalfees- Insurance. IT.hardwareandsoftwate L4520 Maiketitsg& Piomotionalkesouttes Officesupplie5 Othgrkliscellan￿￿5C0Sts LOK8 1,023 493 Paypal1￿5 349 Ranger- Sènctvart#atSea (Sarah Nlillwardl 5uTvpyequipmeTrt Ttsiningc05t5forRanEer5and Volunteers Ranger.Activitie5&Admin' Lauren McGrego Ranger. 5RTRMSR-PollyFord GrantS8iven anger. Karen Gaudem TQtèlAdminlstratWCosts LS.456 I.￿8 60 11298 4.788 1.468 71,070 nuo4nd£y4thidliu com¥¢￿15￿11G￿Up￿4S*Ir(b11uJt 39142

SRT Annual Report 2023 surplus 122.V561 other Income CQuiseFees¢olle¢tedforField StudiesC¢vn¢ll GIftAldincom FIDtillagtant-riTrgFeTrced Totalotherlncome 18,&46 Surplus Surplus 40142

SRT Annual Report 2023 Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the tru5tee51 Mem￿￿$ of Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust On a￿Ounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 harity no Ill anyl 1192938 Set out on ￿g•S R•sp8ctiw The Charty's twslees 8r8 r8sponsible forlhe preparalk)n ol the awunts. respon#ibiliti•s of The charity's t￿￿8 consider that an athlit is not required for this yÈar trusteos and examingr und¥r section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Chanties Act) and that an independent examination is n88ded. It is rny responsibility to.. examine the accounts utKleT sectM)n 145 of the Charities Act, to follow the procedures laid down in thè gentsral Diredions given by the Charity Commission (under sedion 14515llbl of the Charities Act, and to state whether particutsr matters havè come to my attention. Bas1¥ of Independent My examination w88 carried OLrt in accordarKE with general Dir8Ctions given •xamlner'$ $tstwnent by the Charty Commission. An examinalign includes 8 review ofthe accounting records kept by the Gharty and a comparison of the accounts presented with those re¢ords. It a180 includ88 considèration of any unusual iterns or di¥¢1gsure5 in the accounts atxl seeking explanation5 from the tNstees concemiThJ any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the eviden￿ that would be required in an audrt, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the a￿o￿nts present a Iruè and fair VI￿ and the report is lirnited lo those matters set out in the ytatemenl bèlow. Independent In cortnaction my examinatw)n. no rn8tter has como to my 8ttentlon'. examinerfs statsment 1. which give5 me reasonab￿ ￿USe to tlie¥e that in, any material respect. th8 requirements." to kg8p accounting records in accordan¢e wRh $¢¢fjon 130 of the charib.es Act", and to prepare arLounts whlch accord bwth the accounting rewTds and coM￿Y ynth thè accounting requirements of the Ch•r5ti¢s A hav8 not tr￿8n met., or 2. to whith, in my opinion, attentlon $hould be drawn in order to enable [￿per undèrstanding ofthe accounts to be reached. Signed: /0 Nam•: Mr J K Shepherd Relevant FYofesslon¥l qUal1ftca￿onIS) or body 111 any1= FCCA, CTA Addrn88: 11A KIM￿￿eY Park Roth Falmouth, Comwall Tr11 2t)A Section B Di$¢lo$ure Only compkgte if the examir*r ￿ed$ to highlight material problems.

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