Impact of climate change and pollution on Lincolnshire coast revealed
It comes as world leaders continue talks at COP26
As COP26 continues in Glasgow, the impact of climate change and pollution on the Lincolnshire coast is being revealed.
Skegness Seal Sanctuary is seeing the results first hand as more and more animals are needing to be rescued.
Director Matt Yeadon says a change in temperature means some fish may be wiped out or have to move on, which will have a major impact on seals.
"If you suddenly said, no you can’t come here anymore, I don’t quite know what the result of that would be, but I can’t see it being very good for them."
"The majority of colonies of seals, they come back year-on-year to the exact same place, it’s built into them.
More are also having to be rescued after getting tangled up in waste.
"Certainly, in the last few years we’ve seen a major increase in pollution affecting seals that we’ve been rescuing.
"It’s nearly exponential really, it’s gone from maybe one every 10/15 years, to one every five, to one every two, to one every one, so it’s getting more and more frequent each year, kind of adding another seal each year, if you like."
"This last year we actually had a seal come in who’d swallowed a black plastic back and fortunately managed to pass it through, but it really did highlight the fact that pollution in our seas is getting worse.
"The entanglement is one of the biggest issues we see, whether it’s fishing nets, or plastic pollution that’s just managed to create some sort of rope and get wrapped around the animals neck or flippers and cause it not to be able to survive.
"It is a horrible way to go and a big problem."