hello TP,
I am glad to see that this is a topic that is still thought about and discussed, I was the PHD student Grumpybadger mentioned from last year, I surveyed the entire colony for a month and a bit in 2008 and am dong the same this year.
I only became aware of this thread because one of the wardens told me about it, I am not an active member here by any stretch of the imagination. However, I do know a little bit about seals, and quite frankly some of the photos on this thread are extremely worrying. We no longer survey the beach colony site because of the high levels of disturbance from photographers, so I personally have not been out there this year, but all my experiences of it last year did nothing but errode my faith in the decency of fellow photographers.
Education is certainly the way forward, but getting people to listen remains a difficult hurdle to overcome. People often believe what they want to about their behaviour and its effects on the seals, and will not be persuaded otherwise. This is not the case for everyone, but many poeple who the wardens have talked to do not believe the information they are being told and act exactly the same after talking to them. People can also be very confrontational, which does not make the voluenteer wardens jobs any easier.
Just a few points on the seals themselves, it is not true that those born on the beach colony are doomed to death. Seal pups can swim from a very early age, I have seen 10 day old pups swimming perfectly well, so they are not all going to drown. Also, the seals on this beach colony are, in all likelyhood, choosing to be on the beach colony because it does not have people visiting it during the week, and therefore are more disturbed when the tourists come in at the weekend. they are not habituated to human presence like those on the dunes colony. Seals return to the same place, often within meters, of where they pupped previously, so it is not a case of 'they couldn't make it to the dunes colony to give birth' in the huge majority of cases.
Finally, I am amazed that no one has been bitten getting that close to the seals. One day, someone will be and it will not be pleasent. Seals have a lot of teeth, can move very fast on land and carry zoonotic diseases that can kill you if untreated (Seal finger). Pups can also bite, they are born with a full set of teeth.
For reference, here are a list of behviours seal exhibit when disturbed, going through to when they are threatened:
1. Raises head and looks in the direction of disturbance, if the seal rolls so it is on its belly and stretches its head and neck high to look at you then it is calculating whether or not to bolt/act aggressivley.
2. Moaning, females often moan at things they feel threatened by, if a seal is doing this at you she is not happy with how close you are. Reduce your profile by kneeling and back away. If a male is hissing at you this means the same thing.
3. Open mouth threat, a seal will also often moan/hiss while doing this. This is a really big warning sign, and it preceeds striking when seals do it to each other. You are definatly too close if a seal is doing this to you, and if it is an aggressive individual it may try and bite. Pups also open mouth threat and bite.
4. Flippering, waving a flipper rapidly in the air, usually only seen if the seal is actaully physcially fighting with another, if this is happening you are definatly too close and are probebly about to be bitten.
I hope this helps people unfamiliar with seals to recognise the signs of disturbance, I will be on the dunes colony tomorrow, and the survey will continue until mid december. I hope that anyone visiting DN acts in a sensible way, for the seals and your own safety.
... I've not been up there, but it is one of the places I regret not visiting; and now I am glad that I haven't.
