Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘It’s just heartbreaking’: Increasing number of seals spotted with plastic choking their necks

A mother seal has been pictured with plastic rope wrapped tightly around her neck. Photo by David Michael Lees

Yet another seal has been spotted with a deep neck wound caused by plastic rope becoming entangled around its throat.

The grey mother seal has been spotted on a remote beach on the Shetland mainland along with her pup.

This is a sight which is becoming more and more common, according to Jan and Pete Bevington who run the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary on the island.

“It’s incredibly sad – you just want to go over and snip it off but it’s not that easy,” said Jan.

Will the seal survive?

This seal is far from the first to become entangled in plastic rope or fishing gear around Shetland.

But despite it being a relatively common occurrence, removing the offending piece of pollution from the animal is incredibly difficult.

seal with plastic stuck around its neck
The seal – which is still alive – was pictured on a polluted beach in Shetland with its pup. Photo by David Michael Lees.

“It’s especially difficult to help grey seals like this one,” Jan said. “They are much bigger than common seals and more ferocious – it could take your arm off if it felt like it.”

Jan explains that the seals are nervous around humans and will not let any rescuers get near, either on foot or by boat.

“Usually you have to wait until the seal is weak and half dead before you can approach it,” she said.

“Otherwise it will just slip straight into the water again.”

Jan Bevington
Jan Bevington, pictured here with a different rescued seal pup.

If a seal allows one of the Hillswick experts to get near, it is taken to the sanctuary and rehabilitated before being released.

Until then however, it is a waiting game to see if it will survive.

In this case, Jan says the mother seal is doing as well as can be hoped and is continuing to care for her pup.

Why are so many seals getting caught up in plastic pollution?

Jan and Pete both say that over the last few years there has been a significant increase in the number of seals getting tangled up in fishing and plastic pollution.

“We are seeing a lot more cases of seals with netting, plastic, rope or twine around their necks than before,” said Pete.

“We are aware of several around the island at the moment but can’t get to them to help.”

He says the problem has arisen in the last few years and seems to coincide with foreign fishing boats dumping nets in the waters nearby.

Jan Bevington
Jan holds up part of an illegally dumped fishing net which young seal pups were found trapped in.

The foreign boats use a different type of fishing gear called monofilament, which is fishing line made from a single long fiber of plastic, as opposed to traditional braided fishing line.

“As far as I understand it, local fisherman aren’t allowed to use this type of gear,” Pete explained.

“And they tell me that these boats are trailing miles and miles of netting behind them which then gets dumped over the side and the seals accidentally swim into.”

Shampoo bottles from Japan washing up in Shetland

But it’s not just fishing gear that is increasingly polluting Shetland’s waters.

Despite more awareness about the harm plastic pollution causes to oceans, island residents are noticing more and more plastic rubbish washing up.

“Although it’s a small island, Shetland has 1,600 miles of coastline,” said Pete.

“There are lots of small inlets which seem to act like a comb and rubbish gets caught up and stuck.

“We see stuff from all over the world, like shampoo bottles from Japan and all sorts.

“It’s not getting any better.”

Here are some fresh photos of the grey seal pup and the mother with the neck wound from some kind of plastic rope, twine…

Posted by Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary on Monday, 29 November 2021

And Shetlanders are certainly no strangers to picking this litter up.

The annual Da Voar Redd Up is the UK’s most successful community litter pick, with over 20% of Shetland’s population volunteering their time each year.

“But it doesn’t stop the problem,” Jan said.

“We need laws and legislation in place to really start protecting our oceans.”