People urged to report sightings of grey seal in St Ives Bay

The female adult grey seal has been spotted in the area with a throwing ring stuck around her neck

Author: Megan PricePublished 3rd Jul 2023

An organisation are urging people to report sightings of a seal in St Ives, who has been entangled with a ringed frisbee around her neck.

BDMLR are calling on people to contact them if they see the female adult grey seal after it was first reported last night with a further sighting this morning.

Dan Jarvis, area co-ordinator for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, said: "The sooner we can find the seal the better, she will be hauling out on land at some point to sleep and to rest and so-on.

"Over time as she does more and more of those activities, the ring is going to slowly cut into her neck. That could become a real welfare issue for her then.

"We've seen our first few cases just in the last few years with seals entangled in frisbees in the south west of England. There's been a lot of effort from retailers to not stock and sell those and to use alternative ones instead."

The organisation say the seal is familiar to them and often spends time in and around harbours in the St Ives Bay area.

Volunteers have been looking for the female seal across the morning.

Dan added: "We're just asking if anybody does see her around the St Ives area or the surrounding area then they contact us. We've got a couple of plans that we're going to try and implement if it's possible to do anything with her and try and get the frisbee off her if we can."

If you have any information, you can contact the BDMLR hotline on 01825 765546.

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