SMRU

🎉Congrats to @francae.bsky.social, @lrendell.bsky.social & @ellengarland.bsky.social on their new #OpenAccess article about humpback population recovery! 🌊🐋📈

📚👉Read the research directly: doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

@seamammalresearch.bsky.social #OpenScience #MarineMammals

Humpback whale breaching in front of the New Caledonian coastline.

New paper on age-related reproductive tactics & success in humpback whales, published in Current Biology.🐳🧬
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
#marmam @seamammalresearch.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social @clairenea.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social 1/7

The NERC Special Committee on Seals (SCOS) 2025 report is now live on the SMRU website: www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2026/0....
Updated population trends analysis and advice to gov relating to management of UK seal populations 🦭📈📉

Gray Seal Cannibalism at the Largest Colony in the World, Sable Island Click on the article title to read more.

Another new paper led by SMRU's @izzylangley.bsky.social: First observations of grey seal cannibalism at Sable Island, inc. a comparison of carcass pathology to cases in Scotland. Collab between SMRU, DFO and @dalhousie.bsky.social with support from @oceanfrontier.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/mms....

Temporal changes in the dietary niche of sympatric seals provides insight into the role of competition in population declines Competition theory suggests that interspecific prey competition can result in changes to the dietary niche, but obtaining timeseries of data from sympatric species experiencing temporal variation in ...

New publication led by SMRU's @izzylangley.bsky.social on competition between grey & harbour seals in Scotland using 20+ yrs of diet data. Many thanks to all who collected samples, and collaborators from the Lighthouse Field Station and Institute of Marine Research
#OA Paper: doi.org/10.1002/oik....

🦭 We have a new paper out! We developed an accessible framework for assessing the risk of collision between seals and operating tidal turbines.
⏭️ We found that most seal tracks moved near the turbine without collision.
Read it here: doi.org/10.1002/aqc....
@seamammalresearch.bsky.social

Our recent paper on grey and harbour seal transboundary distribution made the cover of @jappliedecology.bsky.social! 😀🦭Thanks to Dr Kelly Robinson of @seamammalresearch.bsky.social for the photo!
Check the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

The diffusion of cooperative and solo bubble net feeding in Canadian Pacific humpback whales Abstract. Animal culture, information and behaviours acquired and shared by social learning are a form of biodiversity with intrinsic and practical value.

New paper on the social learning of bubble net feeding by humpbacks in British Columbia, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B 🐋
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

#marmam @bcwhales.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social [1/5]

This study provides the first comprehensive, regionally scalable distribution estimates for Seals across the Northwest European Shelf and its constituent countries 🦭 🌍 🌊

🔎 Find out more: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Great to see the use of SMRU Instrumentation tags on grey and harbour seals published in this recent paper by SMRU researchers @mattidcarter.bsky.social and @djfrussell.bsky.social 🦭🛰️

My first research paper, "Can Hematological Biomarkers Indicate Diagnoses and Prognosis in Stranded Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina)?", has been published! Read it here: doi.org/10.1111/mms....

#publishedarticle #marinebiology #marinemammals #research @seamammalresearch.bsky.social

Thanks to collaborators from @univ-larochelle.fr @w-u-r.bsky.social @marinemammalsau.bsky.social @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social

Scale-dependent foraging behaviour and habitat associations of two sympatric marine top predators - Landscape Ecology Context Theoretical research has considered how animals should optimise foraging strategies to maximise fitness, adapting search scale to exploit different habitats and minimise competition. Empirical...

New #OA paper in Landscape Ecology led by SMRU researchers @mattidcarter.bsky.social and @djfrussell.bsky.social reveals scale-dependent foraging behaviour and habitat associations of grey and harbour seals across the North Sea 🦭🧭 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Great talk by @izzylangley.bsky.social of @seamammalresearch.bsky.social at #BES2025 on intraguild predation and UK seal population trends. Check the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Another great SMRU poster at #BES2025 by Dr Faye Moyes. Check out the paper ok UK marine mammal bycatch here: academic.oup.com/icesjms/arti...

SMRU PhD student Mia Goldman is presenting research on grey seal breeding phenology at #BES2025. Check out her poster 🦭

More interesting SMRU research being presented at #BES2025 by Georgina Whittome! 🐋

If you are attending the @britishecologicalsociety.org conference #BES2025 in Edinburgh, look out for exciting seal research from SMRU folk @izzylangley.bsky.social @mattidcarter.bsky.social @eva-mariab.bsky.social and Mia Goldman

Datasets from Carter et al. At-sea distribution of seals on the Northwest European Shelf: towards transboundary conservation and management

Get access to the map data here: tinyurl.com/4seujt2c

Thanks to funders NERC @ukri.org, INSITE, DESNZ (facilitated by Hartley Anderson), and Scottish Government Marine Directorate.

Thanks to collaborators @w-u-r.bsky.social, @univ-larochelle.fr, @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social, @ucc.ie, @marinemammalsau.bsky.social, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, and Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences @gannetguy.bsky.social @beestfloris.bsky.social @anitagilles.bsky.social

The new maps allow better understanding of transboundary seal distribution for conservation and management. Maps are also provided for UK nations, Seal Monitoring Units and SACs.

The work combined haulout counts and data from >840 seals tagged with @smruinstrument.bsky.social GPS devices, tracked in 7 European countries to generate at-sea density on country- and shelf-wide scales.

At‐sea distribution of seals on the Northwest European Shelf: Towards transboundary conservation and management This study provides the first comprehensive, regionally scalable distribution estimates for pinnipeds across the NWES and its constituent countries. The modelling framework is adaptable to other cent....

New @jappliedecology.bsky.social paper: SMRU researchers @mattidcarter.bsky.social & @djfrussell.bsky.social led a large collaborative team to map the distribution of grey and harbour seals at sea across the Northwest European Shelf 🦭 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

me Eadin Oscar Gaggioti and Morton Olsen toasting in front of the SOI Xmas tree

Three people with liquorice pipes

Éadin looking happy

Eadin and I in front of the title slide of her seminar "From breath to whole genome"

So chuffed for the newly minted Dr @eadinomahony.bsky.social who crushed their viva this week at @seamammalresearch.bsky.social and gave an awesome seminar to boot! Many thanks to @tangeolsen.bsky.social for years of support! 🐳🦑🧪

A recent SMRU paper on clinical chemistry reference intervals for health assessments in harbour seals has been featured on the cover of the journal Animals. Check out the cover story here:
www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/15...

New paper out today in @ecol-evol.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1002/ece3....

The total size of the body’s fat stores is a crucial factor in understanding animal health, life history and conservation biology, but no established method exists to measure it in large marine animals without capturing them.

🦭 Last week, I presented our recent work on evaluating the risk of seals colliding with tidal turbines at @seamammalresearch.bsky.social, at the @mastscot.bsky.social conference.

If you’re interested in hearing more, read the preprint here: shorturl.at/76VSb !

Past all of the city bridges, at Garthdee

This work is being carried out upriver, well away from any cetaceans