North East File Collection - NEFC

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Current state of harbour seals in the Tees

The Tees Estuary Seal Survey project TESS concludes that almost all the harbour seal pups born at Seal Sand die soon after weaning. While death symptoms may differ (mouth rot, emaciation, …) an underlying cause is likely to be the high levels of PCBs found in their blubber post-mortem. PCBs are known to cause immunosuppression and failure to thrive in harbour seals, so it seems an open and shut case. However, the counter narrative is that the seals on the Tees are thriving and in terms of adult numbers, their population is expanding in the UK. Mouth rot is found around the UK and the epidemiological argument is that the Tees population is so small that it is not possible to make such a statement. Defra has funded work to identify the novel virus that causes mouth rot and to develop a lateral flow test for that virus. INCA stated that there is nothing different about harbour seal pups on the Tees, “baby seals are always dying”. Anyway it looks like all the harbour seal pups are stranding so some sort of local seal rehabilitation provision is essential. There was an attempt this year raise funding for a suitable simple facility in Hartlepool because by the time our seals strand most rehabilitation spaces are filled, and some would not survive the long journeys to any available places.