2004 Strategic Environmental Assessment SEA5 Distribution and movements of harbour seals around Orkney, Shetland and the Wash

This report is a contribution to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA5) conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department of Energy and Climate Change). 30 harbour seals in Orkney and Shetland and 10 in the Wash were captured and satellite tagged between October 2003 and March 2004. Each seal was tracked for an average of 150 days. As anticipated from initial satellite tagging in St Andrews Bay animals were found to travel much further to forage than previously anticipated. A high degree of individual variation in foraging behaviour of animals was found in Orkney and Shetland. The distance travelled to forage ranged between 5 and 150 km. In the Wash foraging behaviour was more consistent, the majority of foraging occurring between 75 and 120 km from haul-outs. The movement data received from the tags, combined with information on the number of animals counted during aerial surveys at haul-outs have been used to predict at-sea usage of the populations in question.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2004-01-01
Citation identifier
British Geological Survey / BGS_SEA_74
Point of contact
Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Paul Henni

offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk

Custodian

Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)

enquiries@decc.gsi.gov.uk

Originator
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
Resource format
Name Version

Documents
Keywords

SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

  • Species distribution

SeaVoX Vertical Co-ordinate Coverages
Use limitation

The SEAs data were produced as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme; Crown Copyright, all rights reserved. The DECC SEA must be acknowledged in any maps or publications that make use of the data. All the data files are freely available to the public. The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal provides free access to available data and reports which have been produced through the SEA process. The site is run and managed by BGS on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Many files can be downloaded directly from this website. Those that are too large to download can be ordered via the website for postal delivery from BGS. BGS (NERC) has been contracted by DECC to publish SEA datasets on its behalf. All intellectual property rights (including , without limitation, copyrights, database rights and all other rights which subsist or may at any time in the future subsist in the Dataset(s)) in the Dataset(s) ('Intellectual Property Rights') are owned by DECC (formerly the Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). BGS has been authorised by DECC to use SEA datasets for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit basis'. BGS has been authorised by DECC to pass on SEA datasets to third parties so that they can use them for all purposes but on a 'not-for-profit' basis.

Access constraints
Intellectual property rights
Distance
5  m
Language
English
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Environment
  • Oceans
Title

SeaVoX salt and fresh water body gazetteer
Date (Revision)
2006-01-01
Code
North Sea
N
S
E
W
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Begin date
2003-10-01
End date
2004-03-01
Supplemental Information

http://www.offshore-sea.org.uk/site/index.php

Reference system identifier
OGP / urn:ogc:def:crs:EPSG::4326
Distribution format
    OnLine resource
    Protocol Linkage Name
    http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/sea/home.html

    Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) data portal
    Hierarchy level
    Dataset
    Statement

    This report was prepared by the Sea Mammal Research Unit, St Andrews as part of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change's Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme. SRDLs were deployed on 15 harbour seals in Orkney, 15 in Shetland and 10 in the Wash, between October 2003 and March 2004. Two deployments were made at each study site to improve data coverage over the year. Animals were captured at haul-out sites or in the water near haul-outs. The SRDLs were attached to the back of the neck behind the head so that the aerial would be abour water when animals surfaced at sea. The tags were attached using a fast setting epoxy resin. Data on location, diving depth, swimming speed, and proportion of time hauled out on land were transmitted using the Argos satellite system. The data were stored and displayed through a suite of programs developed at SMRU.

    Metadata

    File identifier
    aba64100-c13e-4de3-e044-0003ba6f30bd XML
    Metadata language
    English
    Hierarchy level
    Dataset
    Date stamp
    2011-08-30
    Metadata standard name

    MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard
    Metadata standard version

    Version 2.3.5
    Metadata author
    Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role

    British Geological Survey (BGS)

    Mary Mowat

    offshoredata@bgs.ac.uk

    		Point of contact
     
     

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    Keywords



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