Former policeman, Mark Carter, from Port Mor on Loch Etive is almost 6 weeks into a hunger strike from 1st June to 31st August. Why is he doing it and why has he chosen these dates?

Take a look at the ‘before and after’ shots (pun intended) above and his motive is clear.

Mark Carter’s initiative

Mr Carter’s hunger strike is for the duration of the Common Seals’ ‘close’ season, 1st June to 31st August -  a time when these seals are pregnant, lactating and feeding pups. They should not be shot during this time and yet they are, sometimes legally. When the mother seal is shot, her pups are condemned to a painful and lingering death by enforced hunger strike – an experience Mark Carter now personally understands.

The photograph below shows one such pup, recently found by Mr Carter’s children on the shores of Loch Etive. It looks asleep but, in death, its eye has begun the retraction into the skull.

Mark Carter’s purpose is to raise public awareness of seal shooting and the need for Highly Protected Marine Areas – and to draw this to the attention of MSPs before they debate on these issues during the progress of the Marine Bill over the next few months.

The Common Seal population has declined by nearly 10,000 seals in two years, that’s one third of the population.

Mark Carter announced his initiative during a Rural Affairs and Environment Committee held at the Scottish Association of Marine Science at Dunstaffnage.

Almost 6 weeks into this 12 week period, Mr Carter has lost over two stones and suffers from leg twitches at night that deprive him of sleep. Hydration is even more critical than normal when food is absent and he is taking care to drink normally. He also has no choice but to take a piece of bread each day or shredded wheat to buffer his system against too fast an absorption of powerful pain killers he must take to combat an injury received while he was on duty as a police officer. His doctor is on call should she be needed at any time.

The facts

As For Argyll has reported before, Common Seal numbers have declined at a catastrophic rate. In December 2008 we wrote on an initiative by Robin Harper, co-convener of the Scottish Green Party.  Mr Harper called for a complete ban on the shooting of common or harbour seals. The Green Party had highlighted research by the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University, showing that Scotland’s seal population dropped by 56% between 2000 and 2007.

In Argyll’s case, our Common Seal population fell by an enormous 25% in 2007 alone.

The drop in numbers has been attributed to climate change and to a scarcity of wild fish in the food chain. The Seal Protection Action Group (SPAG), however, told the BBC’s Countryfile programme on 5th April 2009  that it believes that 3,500 – 4,000 seals are shot in Scotland every year. That figure tallies with the 10,000 drop in the species Scottish population ovber the past 2 years, as disease and other factors will also play a part.

SPAG are pointing the finger openly at the commercial salmon farms whose numbers have dramatically increased.

Outside their breeding season, seals may legally be shot and salmon farms do shoot them to protect their stocks.  While denying that they shoot the sort of numbers suggested by the SPAG, they argue that seals are physically powerful predators capable of biting through the nets of the salmon cages. They say that where this happens they can lose over a thousand salmon a time as seals take bites out of passing fish, some are traumatised and others escape.

The SPAG say that the shooting of seals takes place in the very remote locations in sea lochs around Scotland that host the salmon farms – and that there are therefore no witnesses. The salmon farming industry is not required by law to release the numbers killed.

Argyll majors on wildlife tourism with many small businesses running boat trips to seal colonies. The unprecedented drop in the  numbers of the species in Argyll waters is already putting that sector of the tourism industry under very real threat.

Mark Carter’s intention is to raise public awareness of the plight of the common seal, their covert- and overt -  shooting and the dramatic decline in their numbers. The timing of his hunger strike to coincide with their breeding, or ‘close’,  season additionally highlights the grave risks they run even in the one part of the year when they are supposed to be protected.

Making your own views known – sign the No 10 e-petition

In addition to his personal commitment through this hunger strike, he has launched an e-petition at No 10 Downing Street website to stop seal shooting. Anyone can express their own concern in this matter by signing this petition. It needs to attract at least 500 signatures for the Prime Minister to look into it. We would urge as many people as possible to sign this – clicking on the link in this paragraph will take you straight there.

Keeping in touch and adding your voice

• As above, you can sign the e-petition at No 10.
• You can read and contribute to an influential website - Marine Concern.
• You can follow Mr Carter’s own progress and add your own comments on his HungerStrikeSeals web blog.

All photographs accompanying this article are by copyright holder Mark Carter and are reproduced here with permission.

Related Posts

• Plea for Government action as holiday family finds shot seal (6)
• Condition of Argyll hunger striker worsens (2)
• Scottish Tax Payers ‘Pay-into’ Norwegian Owned Fish Farm Profits (1)
• Common seals need protection after moult as well as in pupping period (2)
• Mark Carter’s petition on seal shooting tops the 500 threshold (0)

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