General Chat

One of my friends was discussing a seal she'd seen in a Cornish creek. Her nephew said he'd seen one on Tuesday in the Thames off Gravesend as well as, on other occasions , a porpoise.

When we lived in Lossiemouth - to be precise at the (then) Covesea Caravan Park - now the Silver Sands Camping and Caravaning holiday park, dad and I used to regularly take a small boat out to Covesea Skerries to look at the seals.

We never had any 'problems' - absolutely no aggression - in fact the seals would swim towards us, and we used to stroke their heads.
As a 6 year old - this was rather magical. The only 'downside' was that the boat leaked, and we had to keep bailing out!
Obviously, we would be careful to avoid the adult males, and, had we come across a distressed / injured seal, we'd have taken more care - but then I would with any distressed / injured animal!!

There have always been porpoises in the Solent,in fact, we probably have a lot of things we don't know about out there.

Thank you all for your replies. Apparently a seal has been seen in the Solent a few times over the past days. Perhaps we were just lucky to see it when we did.

A few years ago we saw some Dolphins playing in the sea at Lee-On-The- Solent. They were really enjoying themselves jumping in and out of the water.

I hope I get to see them again. Its so much nicer seeing them in the sea.

Jane

Good to know that I was right, even if Sharon got it wrong,because I know what I am talking about without having to Google it first.

There have been seals spotted in Pagham Harbour.

Oh I didn't know there were seals at Langstone, that probably explains it then.

Sharon is incorrect.

https://www.animallaw.info/article/history-rspca

There is a colony of harbour seals based around Langstone harbour ( nr Portsmouth ) and they are known to make forays as far west as Poole depending on food availability. Summer shoals of mackerel are a big draw. They are not fussy about where they live as long as there is something to eat and a place to haul out - Barking Creek in Essex is popular if not very photogenic.

They are cunning and disliked by fishermen. However their chief modern enemy is the grockle armed with a speedboat or jet ski.

Harbour seals can stay underwater for quite a while certainly 20 min. Lying in the water not doing much except thinking fishy thoughts is typical behaviour. No doubt the local RSPCA are aware of that.


Never approach a seal. They are feisty creatures with a big set of choppers. Those who look after them when they are in trouble know what they are doing.

Jane, looks like it was just resting but have you seen seals around there before? We never have.

That's interesting, Sharron - yet they now 'claim' to help animals!

Maybe my address, indicating I'm one of the 'lower order' was the reason they didn't want to help he cat :-| :-| :-|

......as for the incorruptible 'higher' orders - I suppose they couldn't (and still can't) be more corrupt........

Nothing to do with this thread really, just me showing off because I know something, but, did you know that the RSPCA wasn't even set up to protect animals?

It was set up to protect the lower orders, who really were not able to protect their own morals, from being corrupted by watching the Stamford bull run.

Hunting was not made illegal because it generally took place on private estates, involving the incorruptible higher orders.
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I'm glad it all ended well, Jane :-D

I've noticed, with the RSPCA, if there's no-one to sue, they don't seem to bother :-|
A few years back, there was an un-neutered Tom cat hanging around the neighbourhood.
None of us in the neighbourhood had seen him before, but he became a nuisance - getting into houses, spraying everywhere and attacking neutered cats.
I ended up locking my cats in.
Then I noticed he had an ear infection - it was so bad, I could smell it when he was quite a way away. Because of the infection, he (naturally) got more aggressive.

I contacted the RSPCA, and told them about this stray cat.

RSPCA: Did I know who the owner was?

Me: No, he's a stray, as I said, in great pain and getting dangerously aggressive

RSPCA: Could you corner him in your house and catch him?

Me: No, I have cats, they've had to be locked in the house because of this cat. Why should I let the stray cat in to the detriment of my own cats? He's also very aggressive, due to the pain he's in, and, unlike you, I don't have the equipment to trap or catch an aggressive cat.

RSPCA: Contact the Cat's Protection League - ask them to trap it.

Me: It needs to see a vet ASAP, it's in agony.

RSPCA: We can't do anything - it's a stray!!!

Me: Would you be more interested in it's welfare if I knew who the owner was, and you could take them to court?

Phone goes down.

Yes. we think he probably poked his tongue out at us as he swam away.

I bet he has pulled that one before!

As it was a lovely evening my husband and I went down the Solent to eat are fish and chips. Whilst down there were spotted a strange object floating in the sea. On closer inspection my husband said it was a seal floating in the water. It wasn't moving very much but did make an effort to breathe every once in a while. It didn't look very well at all. So I phoned a friend and got he number for the RSPCA emergency number. They didn't answer the phone we just got their recorded message over and over again.

In the mean time we enlisted the help of some other people who were passing by and they tried the RSPCA again without any success. By now the seal looked as if it was struggling to breathe, and had been floating in the water for well over an hour. It was hardly moving, so this lad decided to phone the coast guard for advice. They were really good and said they would contact the RSPCA for us. We gave them the exact location and they said someone would come down to see what they could do to help.

Then things got a bit embarrassing, after about another 15 mins, the seal drifted out to sea and did a victory roll and swam off. We then had to phone back the coast guard and tell them not to bother coming. They were really good a bout it.

Hopefully the seal will be alright.

Jane