SMRUsealpred is an exciting new citizen science project from the Sea Mammal Research Unit that is investigating the prevalence of grey seal-inflicted mortality on marine mammals.
For a number of years, researchers have been aware that some individual grey seal males kill and feed on marine mammals (including grey seals, harbour seals, and harbour porpoises). This behaviour has been observed in the UK and overseas, but we don’t yet know how many individuals it involves and how often it occurs.
The new webpage provides an opportunity to report evidence of strange interactions between grey seals and marine mammals that may be related to this behaviour. Photographs and videos are particularly helpful as from these we can identify both individuals and species and gain an understanding into the regional extent.
This project is working closely with the strandings networks around the UK, and they are the first point of contact for reports of dead animals. Details of these are:
- Scotland: Scottish Marine Animal Strandings Scheme (SMASS) 07979 245893 / 01463 243030
- Cornwall: Cornwall Wildlife Trust 0345 201 2626
- Rest of the UK: Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) 0800 652 0333
