Grace Hickling

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“In 1949 Grace and Ian Telfer, an {{w|Natural History Society of Northumbria|NHSN}} member, decided to mark {{w|Pinniped|seals}} in an attempt to follow their movements. Though {{w|grey seal}}s are resident on the {{w|Farne Islands|Farnes}}, nothing was known about them outside the breeding season. The first seals were tagged in 1951, and within fifteen days the first marked seal was recovered in Norway. This was ground breaking research as no one had realised how far the Grey Seals were traveling.”

“To-day, although numbers of {{w|fur seal}}s are still taken—in addition to the {{w|Pribilof Islands#Fur trade|Pribilof cull}} some 30,000 yearlings of the {{w|South African fur seal}} are killed each year—the decrease in the number of whales, and the increasing demand for edible oil has meant a growing emphasis on the exploitation of seals for oil.”

“These youngsters appear to have little fear of man for Jack Shiel tells the story of how, on a day in late autumn when they were line fishing for {{w|haddock}}, a young {{w|Grey seal|seal}} kept helping himself to the best fish while the men were taking the others from the hooks.”

“On 3rd December, 1958, ten {{w|grey seal}} calves were killed on the North Wamses, a small island some three miles off the north {{w|Northumberland}} coast. This was the first licensed killing of grey seals during the breeding season since the passing of the 1932 Grey Seals Protection Act and it was intended to be the first stage of an experimental annual cull of 300 calves, recommended as a means of reducing the grey seal population of the {{w|Fame Islands}} and thereby lessening the damage done by seals to the salmon fishing industry.”