{"id":7335,"date":"2017-11-30T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/?p=7335"},"modified":"2019-04-04T11:55:11","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T10:55:11","slug":"how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding how seals use the water column in tidally energetic areas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7367\" style=\"width: 652px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/11\/Figure-7.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7367\" class=\"wp-image-7367 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/11\/Figure-7.jpg\" alt=\"Midpoint locations of each harbour seal dive (in red) overlaid on the high resolution bathymetry data\" width=\"642\" height=\"185\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/11\/Figure-7.jpg 642w, https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/11\/Figure-7-300x86.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 642px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 642\/185;\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7367\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Midpoint locations of each harbour seal dive (in red) overlaid on the high resolution bathymetry data<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p>As the tidal renewable industry continues to grow, increasing our understanding of the way that marine mammals use tidally energetic areas is of particular importance. This is a particular issue as there is increasing evidence that tidal energetic areas can be important foraging areas for marine mammals, therefore understanding how marine mammals use the water column is required to improve assessments of the risk of collision between seals and tidal turbines in highly energetic areas.<\/p>\n<p>Building on work undertaken in a previous project\u00a0which developed an improved collision risk modelling approach, utilising the most up to date information available on how seals (specifically harbour seals) use tidally active areas, this report\u00a0presents a specific case study on how harbour (<em>Phoca vitulina) <\/em>and grey seals (<em>Halichoerus grypus<\/em>) use the water column within the Brims tidal energy lease area, located between Orkney and the north coast of Scotland. The Brims site is much deeper than the site used in the original work and so provides an opportunity to consider how this affects seals\u2019 use of the water column.<\/p>\n<p>Summarising the most up to date telemetry data from 20 seals tagged between 2010 and 2016, the report details the proportion of time seals spent at different depths in the water column, as well as the number of times seals passed through different water depths during foraging dives in the Brims site.<\/p>\n<p>The work, undertaken by the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)\u00a0at the University of St Andrews, is an important step in understanding how seals use the water in highly energetic areas which can be used to inform collision risk models on the risks posed between seals and tidal turbines.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Further Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.7489\/2008-1\">Read the report <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.7489\/2008-1\">Access the Data <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk\/\">Sea Mammal Research Unit\u00a0<\/a>(SMRU)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gov.scot\/Topics\/marine\/science\">Marine Scotland Science<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the tidal renewable industry continues to grow, increasing our understanding of the way that marine mammals use tidally energetic areas is of particular importance. This is a particular issue as there is increasing evidence that tidal energetic areas can be important foraging areas for marine mammals, therefore understanding how marine mammals use the water&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":7374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,19],"tags":[150,495,494],"class_list":["post-7335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collaboration","category-renewables","category-publications","tag-seals","tag-tide","tag-wave-energy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Understanding how seals use the water column in tidally energetic areas - Marine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding how seals use the water column in tidally energetic areas - Marine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the tidal renewable industry continues to grow, increasing our understanding of the way that marine mammals use tidally energetic areas is of particular importance. This is a particular issue as there is increasing evidence that tidal energetic areas can be important foraging areas for marine mammals, therefore understanding how marine mammals use the water...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Marine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-30T10:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-04T10:55:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/11\/New-Publications-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marine Scotland Communications\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Marine Scotland Communications\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Marine Scotland Communications\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/#\/schema\/person\/4421233cd09c62fea38ad8ecc3f75651\"},\"headline\":\"Understanding how seals use the water column in tidally energetic areas\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-30T10:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-04T10:55:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/\"},\"wordCount\":324,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2017\/11\/New-Publications-image.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"seals\",\"tide\",\"wave energy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Collaborations\",\"Marine Renewables\",\"Publications\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.gov.scot\/marine-scotland\/2017\/11\/30\/how-adult-harbour-seals-and-grey-seal-pups-use-the-water-column\/\",\"name\":\"Understanding how seals use the water column in tidally energetic areas - 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