Read on Twitter
Hi all, welcome to our twitter presentation on the #Solent #seal population for #BESaquaticECRTweets.
Myself and Robyne Castles carried out this research as 3rd year undergraduates at @UoPMarineBiol @portsmouthuni (1/14)
Myself and Robyne Castles carried out this research as 3rd year undergraduates at @UoPMarineBiol @portsmouthuni (1/14)
We were supervised by @sarahmarley86, and used data recorded by @petepoach, John Atkins and Louise MacCallum We are grateful to @chichesterharbo & @langstonehb for making this research possible (2/14)
Both harbour and grey seals are found throughout the UK, but while grey seal populations are generally increasing 
, harbour seal populations are unstable following recent epidemics 
(3/14)
, harbour seal populations are unstable following recent epidemics (3/14)
The Solent harbour seal population was established in the 1990’s. Since then they have only been studied once (4/14)
In 2010, Chesworth et al. looked at the movement of 5 tagged animals from Chichester harbour. But how has the population fared since then? (5/14)
This lack of data on the novel Solent seal population shows a need for monitoring of both regional and local populations to understand overall trends (6/14)
The present study was based in Hampshire, SE England. We used a 20-year seal count dataset from neighbouring Chichester and Langstone Harbours and 3-year photo-ID dataset from Chichester Harbour (7/14)
Count data indicated a significant increase in both harbour and grey seals at Chichester Harbour, while at Langstone Harbour only grey seals increased and harbour seals decreased (8/14)
at Chichester Harbour, while at Langstone Harbour only grey seals increased and harbour seals decreased (8/14)
Photo-ID data identified a total of 67 harbour and 8 grey seals over three years at Chichester harbour (9/14)
A total of 16 harbour seals (23.9% of all identified harbour seas) were resighted during the study, while only one grey seal was resighted (10/14)
These findings show evidence of site fidelity of harbour seals in the Solent, and highlight the importance of the Solent area to the species (11/14)
Overall, this study indicates that both harbour and grey seal numbers are increasing in the Solent, but further research is needed to identify drivers of this trend (12/14)
If you are interested in learning more about this study and the Solent seals, stay tuned - the paper is currently in review! (13/14)
Thanks for following our presentation for #BESaquaticECRTweets!
Feel free to ask any questions
(14/14)
Feel free to ask any questions
(14/14)
