Should we save the seals or cull them?
Orphaned seal pups flown from Orkney as fishermen call for cull
(From The Orcadian dated November 30, 2000)

A group of seal pups were flown from Kirkwall to an RSPCA wildlife hospital in England on Wednesday after the local sanctuary reached full capacity.

A plea by Scottish wildlife lovers to aid seal pups separated from their mothers by the autumn storms has been met by one of the world’s biggest animal welfare organisations.

The move to aid the pups has come in the same week that a North-East of England fishermen’s leader called for a cull of grey seals. Anglo-Scottish Fishermen’s Association chairman Mr David Shiel claims they are decimating fish stocks and are too numerous for their own good.

Orkney Fisheries Association secretary Mr Alan Coghill did not go as far as calling for a cull, but said seal pups being swept out to sea was “nature taking its course.”

Dozens of three-month-old grey seals have been stranded on beaches in Orkney. Many have been taken in by Ross Flett at Orkney Seal Rescue’s sanctuary, but capacity is limited and local carers are unable to help all of the animals being brought to them.

“This year has been so bad, I’m getting calls all the time,” said Mr Flett. “I’m getting seal pups from all over the North of Scotland now, not just from Orkney waters.

“These are quite small pups that have been separated from their mothers and are unable to survive in the wild on their own.”

The numbers of lost seal pups have become too great for the local sanctuary to cope, he said. The only option is to fly them south to a larger facility.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare has stepped in to help, chartering an aeroplane to fly eight pups to Norfolk, where they will be cared for at an RSPCA sanctuary.

The flight left Kirkwall Airport yesterday afternoon, its cargo contained in huge cold water storage tanks. An IFAW vet accompanied the pups in the air and for the duration of their transition from Norwich Airport to Norfolk Wildlife hospital at East Winch in an ambulance. They will then be tube fed until ready to be released.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue organisation has been saving seals from storm ravaged beaches, but asked IFAW to help when the Orkney Seal Sanctuary was unable to accept any more of the animals.

Mike Baker, IFAW’s UK director, said: “Our emergency relief team is always standing by to aid animals in distress.

“The extreme weather conditions have led to animal suffering across the country and although we are unable to save every creature, this was an extraordinary case. Without their mothers and without our help the pups would have starved.”

Mr David Sheil, fishermen’s leader from the North East of England takes a different view on the plight of the seals. He is calling for the reintroduction of an organised grey seal cull to control numbers, claiming the seals are decimating fish stocks and are too numerous for their own good.

Mr Sheil, chairman of the Anglo-Scottish Fishermen’s Association, said: “Seal numbers are getting out of hand now. Even a scientific paper published in 1999, showed that grey seal numbers in this country have risen from 20,000 in 1970 to more than 100,000 last year. They have to be brought back to a manageable level, which can only be done through a cull.”

Local fishing industry spokesman, Mr Alan Coghill, secretary of the Orkney Fisheries Association (OFA), took a more reasoned point of view.

He said: “Like the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, we feel that there is the need to set up some sort of commission to look at the management and control of seal numbers, and to take a responsible approach to the situation rather than resorting to drastic action. But we aware that the seal population has exploded in Orkney in recent years. The reason that so many pups are being swept out to sea, is that the breeding beaches are overcrowded. It’s nature taking its course.”

But the suggestion to bring back organised seal culls has been attacked by Scotland’s leading animal protection organisation, Advocates for Animals.

The group claim: “Scientific evidence has shown time and again that seals cause insignificant damage to commercial fish stocks. The biggest threat has always been from over-fishing by humans, next comes from the fish themselves preying on other fish and then seabirds. Seals come way down the list.”

The director of Advocates for Animals, Mr Les Ward, said: “It is the fishing industry itself which has mismanaged fish stocks over the years and the seal has become once again the scapegoat for overfishing. Advocates for Animals will not stand idly by and watch the slaughter of seals. A return to the days when the waters around the Western Isles of Scotland were red with blood of seals pups will not be tolerated.”