Timmian Jeffress

Biology 1615-030
11/16/16
Summary: Do rogue seals exist? Implications for seal conservation in the UK

Introduction
Both sea lions and seals have a detrimental effect upon fisheries in both the Pacific and
Atlantic Coast. The governments in the US, UK, and Europe all have legislation that protects
both seals and salmon involved. Managers must therefore attempt to nd a compromise
between the competing legal requirements for the conservation and management of seal and
salmon populations (Graham, Harris, Matejusov, & Middlemas, 2011, p.1). One way of fixing
this problem is to deal with just the salmon-eating seals in the population.
One Scotland fishery identified problem seals and killed the seals at coastal haul-out
sites in the vicinity of rivers with sheries for Atlantic salmon and sea trout (Graham, Harris,
Matejusov, & Middlemas, 2011, p.1). The researchers wanted to test if this management
process worked efficiently. They compared coastal and estuary seals to determine which were
eating more salmon. If killing problem seals is effective then this method could be shared with
other fisheries and help increase the salmon population, which would decrease salmon costs for
the consumer.

Materials and Methods

Cameras installed at three river locations took daily pictures of both sides of the seals
heads. In addition, researchers made an in-person survey at each river location four times each
month. They also collected stomach samples from dead seals (and one live seal) and scat samples
along the estuary. The stomach and scat samples were subjected to DNA analysis to identify
salmon in the seals diet.

Results
The river surveys showed that, Grey seal abundance uctuated intra-annually in a
similar way in all three rivers, being most abundant between November and February and either
absent or present in much lower numbers throughout the rest of the year (Graham, Harris,
Matejusov, & Middlemas, 2011, p.4). In photo identification, more grey seals were seen
throughout the experiment than harbor seals. In the DNA extractions, more salmon and trout was
found in the stomach and scat of river samples than of coastal samples. The information
collected showed that more grey seals were around the rivers and river seals had more salmon
and trout in their digestive tract. Although more grey seals were spotted, both species didnt have
many individual seals returning to a specified eating area.

Discussion
With the information gathered, the researchers estimated that fewer individuals of each
species were recognized in the specified areas than expected, indicating that the managing of

these seals by the Scotland fishery was helpful in the production of salmon and trout. There
were many environmental factors that could have messed with the data. For example, a number
of DNA samples would have helped solidify evidence. Also, the researchers didnt factor in
inter-species avoidance during this experiment, which caused an imbalance in the species present
at each sample location. One method not attempted during the experiment that could have added
to the weight of the survey evidence would be to tag the relocated seals to test if the relocated
seals returned to the problem areas.

Bibliography
Graham, I. M., Harris, R. N., Matejusov, I., & Middlemas, S. J. (2011). Do rogue seals exist?
Implications for seal conservation in the UK. Animal Conservation, 14(6), 587-598.
doi:10.1111/j.1469-1795.2011.00469.x