…………..she's good enough for Coastwise members.
Sue is the passionate leader of the Cornwall Seal Group, who was recently honoured with an MBE for her work, and gave a talk on the Trust's work in which Coastwise members were given a privileged film insight of her investiture.
The group is devoted to learning more about seals and their lives by building up an identity bank based on the marking on the fur.
They have a huge amount of data, but in addition to the data gathering and tracking the group looks after injured seals prior to release, and releases entangled seals from nets and plastic debris – one offender is the plastic rings used as frisbees on the beach. Of the seals they see, about 4% are entangled in some way.
The group has ID'd 25 seals seen in the N Corwall area for 10 years, and 9 over 20 years. Seals have been seen after long gaps – one after 16years, and one after 20 years away.
The research has identified that seals seem to have one pup each year. One has been identified to have 19 pups in 20 years.
It is thought that, since they mate immediately after weaning the pup for 3 weeks after birth, they are able to delay fertilisation for possibly 3 months to allow them to build up severely depleted bodily fat reserves prior growing the embryo, and then feed the new pup for 3 weeks.
The Trust has seen a trend towards earlier pupping, on avearge 2-4 days earlier per year, which is possibly due to climate change.
Sue's talk is available on YouTube ….
(but with the sequences of her investiture edited out according to Palace rules)