baby seal found in back garden - 18 miles from the sea

A family who found a baby seal in the back garden of their Kent home 18 miles from the sea have named her Rudolph.

The pup, which the RSPCA said was less than a year old, was in the Dwyer family's garden in Benenden on Monday morning when they let out pet dog Jack.

It is thought the seal got into the stream from the River Rother, which meets the English Channel at Rye.

The RSPCA is now caring for the seal, which has been renamed Gulliver, at Mallydams Wood Wildlife Centre near Hastings in East Sussex.

Keeper Elaine Crouch said baby seals often became separated from their mothers in bad weather such as storms or floods.

"She has a a tag from Belgium, probably put on by the rehabilitation centre at Ostend, then she got into the River Rother and ended up in the stream."

Scuba Diving the Farne Islands

Scuba diving with seals has to rank as one of the best marine encounters any diver can enjoy.

The ear-to-ear grin that is left on your face as they buzz around you, nibble your fins and rub their noses in the port of your camera can leave you in danger of letting your regs accidentally fall out of your mouth.



This time last year, a group of us 'intrepid' divers headed for the Farne Islands which lie two to three miles off the Northumberland coast midway between the fishing village of Seahouses and the Castle of Bamburgh.

As well as being the most famous Sea Bird Sanctuary in the British Isles they also have a large colony of Atlantic or Grey Seals with between 3,000 and 4,000 of this rare species on and around the islands.

The colonies here are said to be one of the most important in Europe, and this species of seal is the largest surviving in the British Isles. Resident throughout the year, an estimated 1,000 pups are born each year in late October and November.



Best Time to Go - As with anywhere in the UK with its unpredictable weather, you pays your money, you takes your chance. October is always a popular time because the seals have pupped and there are many little ones swimming around. But that can make them more wary. According to our dive boat skipper, the seals are most playful up the age of about one and then after that couldn't give a monkeys about divers. We went in June, when the more playful ones were about six or seven months, and thankfully enjoyed fantastic conditions with the sea like a mill-pond and the surface temperatures about 20C.

Best Dive Sites - The Hopper, without a shadow of a doubt. A sheer cliff down to about 30m, the submerged island is home to a colony of seals. It has a deep kelp-covered gully running through it which is a perfect obstacle course for seals to test their agility. We dropped down to 20m for a few minutes and headed up the gully. A movement or two in the murk and flashes of silver in the sunlight told us the seals were around but they stayed agonisingly out of sight. As we hit the top of the gully we spun left and on top of the pinnacle at a snorkeling depth of about two metres for the next 40 minutes. This was the seal playground and where all the fun took place. The inquisitive creatures buzzed, nibbled, examined and played with us as we wielded our cameras, tantalising us with a grace you can't imagine comes from a creature so unwieldy on land.



Viz - Typical UK dive at that time of years of between five and seven metres.

Biggest gripe(s) - That the dive was a maximum time of 60 minutes, that I couldn't be in there longer and that my air levels were always decreasing. Seriously, there was nothing to gripe about diving with seals. It was simply a case of wanting to stay down there with them. The Pinnacles wasn't as impressive, but that might have been more down to the fact that we had just spent an hour with seals. And the endless drive from the Midlands was a pain.

What suit to take - It's the UK so a drysuit all the way. It's more comfortable in the water and easier out of it. The water temperature was about 14C so 3mm gloves for comfort as well.



Who to dive with - We dive with small family-run business Sovereign Diving. A fantastic operation that, as well as good hardboat diving and knowledgeable and friendly skipper, can do you accommodation and hire out extra cylinders as well. So good that, according to their website, they only have one weekend still free between now and early November. They do have spaces available in the week from mid-September. That in itself speaks volumes.

Where to Stay - We stayed at Sovereign's Old School House B&B about five minutes drive from Seahouses harbour and walking distance to a decent pub.



Miscellaneous Diving Info - Our hardboat offered hot drinks but remember to take some food and water on board with you as you will be out for most of the day. You have to drive down to the harbour (£4 parking) kit up and take everything to the boat so remember spare cylinders and any other odds and sods you might want for the day. Sovereign's dive shop is about five mins drive away and cylinders can be left with them overnight for collection on the morning of the second days diving. They also stock plenty of bits should you need any spares. Check out their website for full details of everything.

Worth Going -Hell yes!



Ripped this off from YouTube to give you an idea but if you've dived the Farnes or with seals elsewhere, let me know what it was like.

Missing link found for scuba divers' friend the seal

Scuba diving with seals has to be among the best marine life interactions we could hope for.

On a trip to the Farne Islands, off the east coast of England, last year we had some amazing moments in their playground as the inquisitive mammals nipped, nibbled, scrutinized and played with us, zipping around like undersea missiles and then displaying breathtaking underwater acrobatics.

Now a scientist's exciting discovery in Canada's High Arctic has yielded the 24 to 20 million-year-old fossil skeleton of a previously unknown mammal, named Puijila darwini, providing a glimpse into the origins of the species.

The Canadian Museum of Nature said the breakthrough sheds new light on the early evolution of pinnipeds (the group that includes seals, sea lions and walruses).

Dr Natalia Rybczynski said: "The land-to-sea transition in pinnipeds has been difficult to study because the fossil evidence has been weak and contentious.

"Puijila is important because it provides a first glimpse into the earliest stages of this important evolutionary transition."

The fossil was found in the summer of 2007 during a fieldwork expedition on Devon Island, Nunavut, in a meteor impact crater.

The new animal has a body resembling that of an otter, but a skull that is more closely related to seals and backs up the theory of evolution. Charles Darwin forecast the transition from land to sea via fresh water in his seminal work On the Origin of Species, published 150 years ago this year.

A "walking seal", Puijila had legs like a terrestrial mammal, but the feet were webbed and adapted for swimming. A website has been set up detailing the discovery and the importance of the breakthrough.

Seals shot in Scotland

Britain's seal population is facing a silent massacre at the hands of the fish farming industry, wildlife campaigners have claimed.

According to the Seal Protection Action Group an estimated 5,000 seals are being killed in Scotland alone each year by salmon farming and angling interests.

The Saving Scotland’s Seals Campaign has now been launched to create legislation to provide seals with full protection and encourage retailers to only stock ‘seal-friendly salmon’.



The UK is home to globally important seal populations of grey and common seals. It is currently legal to shoot seals outside their breeding season when they are threatening fish farms.
But a drop in the number of common seals around Scotland - possibly due to ecological changes, a shortage of wild fish and perhaps predation by Orcas in some areas - has led some campaigners to fear the gunmen are being a little too trigger happy.

Scott Landsburgh of the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation said estimates of the number of seals shot were well off target.
According to industry figures, 489 were reported shot last year and Mr Landsburgh branded the current outcry as ill-informed reporting. SSPO have also produced a background document on the issues.
He told BBC1's Countryfile programme: "The seals are very aggressive, they attack the nets and can bite through them, and they can also actually use their flippers to steal salmon out of the cages.
"We all like seals, we all want to protect the seals, but our paramount responsibility is the welfare of the salmon."



Paramount responsibility is the salmon? Is that the very salmon that will be fished out, killed and slapped in a plastic container ready for out tables?
Or should the statement have read: "Our paramount responsibility is the welfare of our bottom line"?

Andy Ottaway, Campaign Director at SPAG, said: “The British public are appalled at the mass slaughter of seals in the Canadian seal hunt. They will be horrified to learn that the mass killing of seals is taking place in this country all year round.
“Surely the Scottish salmon industry, which is worth hundreds of millions of pounds can find ways of keeping seals away from their stock without killing them."

An interesting observation. With some estimates putting the industry's worth at £380 million (page 9), there's a lot of cash floating around which could be used to fund conservation efforts rather than a bullet through the brain.

While we as a nation are continually asking other countries to stop the slaughter of animals and think of the cash that nature tourism could bring to their economies, it's a bit hypocritical for politicians to be turning a blind eye to the issues on home shores.
Having dived with seals in the Farnes Islands, I can only say what a magical experience it was. They rank as three of the best dives I've ever done in terms of marine life interaction. We were buzzed, examined and nibbled by the playful creatures and I've got countless pics of whiskered noses being rubbed against the port of my camera.

The Scottish Government does have a working group called the Scottish Seals Forum, but the latest minutes on its website are from three years ago and the most up to date scientific research is from four years ago. Better to look at the Sea Mammals Research Unit for its up to date research.
While their report acknowledges the problems faced by the salmon farming industry, it states:
"Very little research has been directed specifically at the interactions between seals and fin fish
farms."
It also suggests that more could be done across the industry to share best practice on dealing with the problem before picking up the gun.
"By using current industry knowledge it may be possible to design solutions to the problem of seal-fin fish farm interactions by applying techniques that are currently available," the report adds.

If this angers you click here for different ways to take action.

My Top Five Dive Sites 2008

Okay, hopefully you've got the chart count down music going round your head......

Coming in at Number 5, its the Birmingham Sea Life Centre

Not a sandy beach in site and no turquoise waters - the canals don't count - but that didn't stop me getting tropical in landlocked Brum when I joined the team of window cleaners tasked with keeping the tanks clean.

And while I know the city centre can sometimes be a dangerous place, but it’s not every day you get headbutted – by a 42-stone Green Sea Turtle.

Read the full story of my exploits and watch the video here.

At 4, the Plymouth wrecks of HMS Scylla and the James Egan Layne

The Leander class frigate that once was the Scylla is the UK's first artificial reef. Now four years she is now covered with fantastic growth with anemones and sea squirts - a damn sight prettier than that gloomy grey war paint she used to have. While the owners have cut massive holes allowing you to penetrate her, that just felt a little bit rude (actually it was too bloody dark inside on the day we dived).

The neighbouring James Egan Lane was thrilling inside - well it had to be because it was the only way to shelter from the surge that ripped over the wreck on our dive. The silhouette of the Liberty ship's intact bow is said to be a fantastic underwater view and its recommended to lie on the seabed with one leg either side of the bow and look up. I had to give up after the surge left me feeling like a stubborn bottle of champagne being repeatedly battered against the hull until I broke. Inside there are loads of bits of old cargo and ship stuff to see but this whizzed by the eyes like an episode of the Generation Game on acid. Still a roller coaster thrill though.

A later entry at Number 3, Superman's Flight in St Lucia.

Beneath the majestic Piton Mountains lies Superman's Flight, a drift dive of some excitement. The beautiful Petit Piton plunges into the Caribbean and continues its slope to the sea bed 1,600 feet below.

Some say that the site got its name because the powerful current that sweeps you along makes you feel like the Man of Steel. But in reality the Pitons made a brief appearance in the sequel when Christopher Reeve flew between the two while wooing Lois Lane.

It's a good job he stayed in the air, because the Man in the Cape may have forgotten about Margot Kidder once he saw the beauty beneath the waves.

The reef is full of soft corals and loads of fish. I've never seen so many trumpetfish in one spot. (Still couldn't get a decent pic though). A stunning reef dive, my pics don't do it justice.

And falling a place to Number 2, the Whale Shark dive.

The reef, lazy sunny afternoon, Whale Shark. Who knew! Can't say much more than my earlier post other than to quote the words of the famous Jack Burton when asked what he expected to find: 'You never can tell!'

Which means we have a new Number 1. The Farne Islands.

Round of applause please

Some might say it wasn't a dive, that at two metres I was snorkeling. Well Pah to them!

For the sheer thrill of up close and personal interactions with sea life, June with the seals in the Farnes is going to take some beating.

It’s amazing how we travel the globe looking for the ultimate in diving experiences but the best of the year was in British waters (okay, considering the seven hour drive I could have to Egypt quicker).
Yes I was only in two metres of water (we did hit 18m for about two minutes) but who's going to complain when you could across the seal playground.

Resting on the top of the rock known as Hopper we enjoyed a 40 minute seal show as they swam, nibbled and rubbed their noses into my camera port. I grinned so much I thought my reg would fall out. A dive everyone should do.