Wednesday 30 November 2011

Seal in the River Ouse East Sussex

Another seal is currently in the river ouse East Sussex.  It does not appear to be the usual 'Ouse Seal ' that regularly visits this river or Twinkle the rescued and released seal we have been following this year.

The seal was first reported to me on the 29th Nov and I received a message from British Divers Marine Life Rescue that they had attended the seal on 28th Nov. The seal is a little on the thin side.

1 comment:

Mike Deacon said...

Any chance of 'rescuing' this little feller again? The reason he is here is as you have indicated, is he seems to have acquired a taste for our endangered sea trout for which this river is nationally famous. With the current drought conditions and extremely low water levels, the sea trout that should have already run up the river above Barcombe, are stuck below Lewes waiting for the rain to come and lift the water levels so that they can get up into the feeder streams (which currently are practically dry), for their annual spawning in December/January, and he is causing a lot of damage.
This spawning run is further threatened by The South East Water Company recently applying to Defra to further reduce levels from the minimum flow of the River Ouse from 20 Million litres per day to 5 million litres per day to fill their reservoirs at Ardingly Arlington and possibly Barcombe too. http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9398917.Only_two_months_of_water_left/

Surely as a marine mammal he belongs in the sea where there are currently masses of herring whiting and cod for him to munch on along with his mates. As I doubt he is getting enough to sustain him properly from the river.

Could you please advise me how to apply to have The British Divers Marine Life team get him back where he belongs.

Many Thanks, Mike Deacon