The government says in a consultation ending next week June 21st, that it wants a balance that does not impact "other sustainable activities around the coast."

In the sites it designates, seals would be protected from "harrassment," under measures contained in the Marine Act passed last year.

SACs for grey seals are Berwickshire and the north Northumberland Coast, Faray and Holm of Faray, Isle of May, Monach Islands, North Rona, Treshnish Isles.

SACs for common seals are Ascrib, Isay and Dunvegan, Dornoch Firth and Morrich More, Eileanan agus Sgeiran Lios mór (Lismore), Firth of Tay & Eden Estuary, Mousa, Sanday, South-East Islay Skerries, Yell Sound Coast.

Scottish government is keen to leave space for industries such as fish farming to develop, but the BBC News reports Vassili Papastavrou, a biologist with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), says protecting sites used by only half the seals was "bizarre".

"The government suggests that allowing intentional harassment of seals on about half of their haul-out sites is part of some kind of 'balance' between seals and other sustainable activities," he said. "But how could an activity that forces a top predator from the local ecosystem ever meet the criteria for 'sustainability'?"

Elaine Murray, MSP for Dumfriesshire, fought to have haul-out sites recognised in the Marine Act, and is concerned that only half of the seals would be covered.

"To my recollection, there was no discussion limiting the number of haul-out sites covered by the harassment offence when this was being discussed during the passage of the Act."

The harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) is found on the shores of the UK and other northern European countries, down the east and west coasts of North America, and on the east coast of Russia and Japan.

Globally, it is not threatened, with numbers estimated at 5-6 million. But in northern Scotland, numbers have declined sharply - by about 60% during the last decade in Orkney and Shetland.

The other species that lives around Scottish shores, the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), has expanded in recent decades.

Reasons behind these different trends, and whether the the two species liveliehoods are linked is not well understood.

Data on Scotland's seal population is compiled by Callan Duck from the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) at St Andrews University. He comments "It would probably be a good idea" to protect all the sites where harbour seals haul themselves onto land, given population shrinkage.

"Enough sites were identified to contain at least 50% of each Seal Management Area's most recent count of harbour and grey seals," is the government approach.

The provisional list contains 146 haul-out sites, including 101 used by harbour seals.The consultation document says it is "intended to provide a focus for discussion" and people are urged to contribute their comments by 21st June.
But Duck is keen to secure more protection  for all seals at a European level.

"All cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) have been designated as protected species by the EU - but seals don't have the same protection, even though they're considerably less numerous than some cetacean species," he said.

"So a more fundamental question is: why don't they have that same protection? Why are they second-class citizens?"




Spring seals

Having just heard an early skylark,
I suddenly saw
Ninteen seals upon a sand bank
Of the river Don, a day before
St Valentines' where a small boy
Clutched his fish rod, waiting
Patiently for their departure,
Lest he hook them, or they hook his fish?

How supple and how furry,
Facing toward the water, then turning on
Their backs to see behind them.
Or arching round, bump, bump, bump,
Like stiff old men, finding an easier pose
For winter-aching, fur clad bones.

The smallest was silver gray and furry,
Barely half an arm in length. Some as black
As seaweed. One large and fat and
Two long and lean, covered in cheetah spots
On creamy, yellow fur.  

And I felt spring, despite the cold wind.
Was suddenly glad to watch the seals
Sunning in the pale thin light -
Keeping the small boy from his fishing -
And being quite extraordinary
Among the river's ducks and gulls
Under a skylark song of sky. 

AJP.  1990