Photo: Gemma Rae
Disturbance of wildlife due to human activity is sadly a common problem, often due to lack of awareness of how to act around them. It can be defined as an animal’s normal and natural behaviour changing because of a human action, such as getting too close or being too noisy, often resulting in stress responses.
Seals are especially vulnerable to this on land, but also in the sea.
Tonight, the BBC will be broadcasting an episode of ‘Our Lives’ that features a diver deliberately seeking out encounters and then interacting heavily with seals underwater, including holding flippers, cuddling and even kissing them. This changes the seal’s behaviour, potentially habituating them to human contact and, by the diver’s own acknowledgement, also causes some to become possessive of him and actively chase off other nearby seals.
The DEFRA Marine and Coastal Wildlife Code of best practice specifically advises against interacting with wildlife in this way due to the impacts it can have, but also the risks it can carry towards people. Seals are predators and can bite, resulting in potentially significant injuries and an infection that responds only to specific antibiotics. They can also carry diseases that can be passed to humans and vice versa, particularly noting coronavirus and avian influenza as recent examples.
Although BDMLR appears in a separate segment of the same programme, we do not endorse the diver’s activities that are presented in it. As part of the Seal Alliance coalition, we have collectively written to the BBC to share our concerns about the practices being role-modelled and of copycat behaviour, which from reviewing social media it is evident that many people have been inspired to try out for themselves already.
Sadly, this is potentially raising the amount of disturbance being experienced at this and other seal haul out sites through increased vessel traffic, noise and intentional interactions. A national broadcast promoting behaviours that are inconsistent with best practice will only lead to more people doing them. Seals are already running out of safe spaces where they can truly be left alone by drones, kayaks, divers, boats and more, with disturbance issues at chronically high levels nationwide and the worst sites being affected as much as every fifteen minutes on average in summer. Seals may look cute, but they are wild animals that have a right to live their natural lives and not be anthropomorphised. It is our responsibility to protect them.
If you do happen to see the programme then please do view it with an open mind, and in the meantime, you can review the Seal Alliance’s advice for in-water activities in the infographic here.