Seals in the Ythan Estuary

Seal-iously Healthy: Leveraging health app data to understand human activity around a seal protection zone.

Seals – Ythan Estuary

Seals and their habitats are popular spots for wildlife tourism. The Forvie National Nature Reserve (NNR), located near the village of Newburgh in Aberdeenshire, hosts the fastest-growing grey seal haul-out in mainland Scotland. Over 3,000 seals have been recorded hauled out on the sand banks at the mouth of the River Ythan. In 2017, this area was designated as one of 195 official seal haul-out sites across Scotland, providing additional protection for the seals from intentional or reckless harassment.

Protected areas for seals often attract many visitors. Visitor numbers to the reserve have been increasing along with the rising number of seals using the haul-out. Since 2008, this area has become a ‘hotspot’ for nature-based recreational activities, with around 63,000 visitors in 2020. Despite the protections in place, incidents of disturbance still occur, with stampedes triggered by visitors venturing too close and instances of pups being attacked by dogs.

Research into how people and seals share this space is limited. It is important to understand how both seals and humans use the area to inform better management measures. To understand the lives of our grey seals, we need to learn more about their population size, preferred resting locations, and factors affecting them. To understand how people use the area, we are interested in why they visit the beach, where they like to go, and their thoughts on the experience.

Claire Stainfield with seals at Ythan Estuary 
PGR Student Researcher | Scotland’s Rural College

Project Aims

The long-term goal of the Aberdeen Marine Mammal Project is to establish a dedicated, long-term monitoring program for the seals at Newburgh Beach and the Ythan Estuary. By conducting dedicated surveys, observers will be able to gather data on the environmental factors influencing seal haul-out behaviour and measure levels of human disturbance.

Claire Stanfield’s PhD project, funded by SRUC, combines modern drone technology with wildlife survey techniques and big-data analysis to address some of these questions. Her objectives are:

i) To determine the grey seal population demographics, haul-out patterns, and potential environmental drivers in the Ythan Estuary.

ii) To quantify human land use and assess the social opinions of visitors to the Ythan Estuary catchment area.

Activity Tracking Apps

The PhD study is evaluating the sustainability of seal ecotourism in the area. Understanding how seals use the area is one part of the puzzle, while understanding how people use the area is another. To achieve this, we will are seeking help from citizen science! The plan is to gather information from activity tracking apps. By analysing the GPS tracks from these apps, we will collect real-time, unbiased data on human activity in the area. This data will help us create a detailed map of human land use and identify trends in visitor opinions.

Map showing an example of GPS tracks to help monitor seals in the Ythan Estuary

Map showing example GPS tracks

Citizen Science – How you can help

Join us in mapping out your adventures! Share your GPS tracks of any fun activities in the Ythan estuary and Newburgh seal beach area. Simply email your tracks—there’s no limit to how many you can send.

Step 1: Enjoy your favourite activity, whether it’s a dog walk, run, or water sport.

Step 2: Use your device or app to track the activity.

Step3: Download your GPS data.

Step 4: Email your track to GPS@sruc.ac.uk. No need for personal details! Just the date, time, and activity, and don’t forget to attach your GPS track!

By voluntarily emailing your data, you are providing consent to participate in our study.

How the data will used?

We’re exploring how people are using the area for outdoor activities and how they might overlap with areas where seals gather on the beach. By looking at recreation (hiking, dog walking, running) separately from seal tourism, we want to see if these two uses of the land ever conflict. Our main goal is to map out where people go and how often they use the areas around the seal protection zone at different times of the year. We’ll do this by comparing GPS data from people’s movements with information we’ve gathered on seal resting locations at the beach, using drones. This will help us understand how human activities might impact (or might not!) the choice of resting position on the seals’.

We need your help! To understand how people use these areas, we need as many GPS tracks as possible. We are looking for data from April 2024 through to September 2026. Your submitted tracks will play a crucial role in helping us see how human activity and seal behavior might overlap. Every track counts!

For more information on how we use your data, please email GPS@sruc.ac.uk for our participant information sheet. We can also provide download instructions for the gpx.files for Garmin Website, Strava Website and Apple Health App.

 

Claire Stainfield

PGR Student Researcher at Scotland’s Rural College (SRC)