A major international research project led by the University of St Andrews has produced the most detailed maps ever created of grey and harbour seal movements across Northwest Europe, offering crucial evidence for sustainable offshore development.
The study, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, brings together GPS data from more than 840 seals tracked across seven countries, alongside extensive counts of seals hauled out on land, to generate high-resolution at-sea density maps.
The findings show that seals routinely cross international borders while foraging, highlighting a long-overlooked challenge for environmental management.
Lead author Dr Matt Carter said: “We wanted to create a set of resources that would allow offshore energy developers, conservation managers, and ecologists to quantify how many seals are likely to be in a given area at any one time, and understand where these seals are likely to be coming from.”
As demand for offshore wind accelerates, these new maps offer developers a far more accurate basis for assessing ecological impact.
Dr Carter noted that ignoring transboundary movements can “under-represent seal numbers by a factor of ten” in some regions, increasing the risk of poor planning decisions.
Co-author Dr Debbie Russell said the dataset “represents over a third of the world’s grey seals and the majority of Europe’s harbour seals,” made possible only through extensive collaboration across 40,000 km of monitored coastline.
The freely available maps provide a major step forward for nature-positive offshore energy planning, helping ensure marine wildlife protection keeps pace with Europe’s net-zero transition.
New seal movement maps to transform offshore marine development appeared first on Energy Live News.