22/6/2004

Seven grey seals swimming off the Pembrokeshire coast in west Wales are today relaying their location and recent diving activity to researchers by satellite transmitter placed on their necks.

Researchers from the sea mammal research unit, based in Scotland, have fitted the small data recording satellite transmitters so they can study the habits and preferences of the seals.

The transmitter is only a little larger than a pack of cards. But attaching it to a grey seal is not easy. Seals spend a great deal of time in salt water or hauled out on rough rocks, and their streamlined shape offers few points for attachment. By placing it on the short strong fur at the back of the seal£s neck, the aerial can emerge from the water when the seal is at the surface. The transmitters don£t bother seals, and they fall off naturally when the seal moults in later winter.

£Seals are extremely difficult to study when they are away from their breeding beaches, when they are at sea, under water and out of sight,£
said Blaise Bullimore, a marine conservation officer with the countryside council for Wales.

£Tracking marine animals with data transmitters by ships or aircraft is very difficult and expensive, but modern satellite technology not only transmits information from the recorders but also lets researchers monitor the behaviour and condition of individual seals.£

Grey seal distribution at sea is relatively well known around much of northern Britain, but the opposite is true in Welsh waters. Research has revealed that some seals travel very long distances - up to 2100 kilometres - and others to very precise areas to feed.

In the 1950s and 60s over 1200 young Pembrokeshire seals were fitted with coloured tags in their hind flippers. Some of these were later re-sighted as far apart as Cornwall, Ireland and north Wales, but where they went and what they did before being sighted weeks or months later remains a mystery. Now the researchers hope to solve the case, and to find out what Welsh seals get up to on the way.

It is planned to fit a total of twenty seals around Wales with satellite transmitters during June and July, at Bardsey Island in North Wales and Hilbre Island in the Dee estuary as well as Pembrokeshire.

The information obtained will help to map the areas used by seals for foraging and resting during the summer and to determine whether seals that are seen in Wales during the summer also breed here.

Source:	Countryside Council for Wales
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