Operation Seabird has seen partner organisations come together to educate people about the need to keep their distance from marine wildlife including dolphins.
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00:00 I'm here at Rorke for Operation Sea Bird where a number of partner organisations have come
00:04 together to inform people about the dangers of getting too close to wildlife.
00:09 In particular there's been a problem with people getting too close to bottlenose dolphins
00:12 coming to the harbour in recent years.
00:15 Okay then Mike, you're down here representing Seascape today, just tell me why you're so
00:19 keen to come down and get your messages out.
00:21 Yeah, so we're down here with our partners to celebrate the amazing wildlife that we
00:25 have off our coast.
00:26 In particular at Sunderland we've got bottlenose dolphins that are visiting on a regular basis
00:31 and what we want to do is raise that awareness that dolphins are protected by the Wildlife
00:35 and Countryside Act and particular behaviour can cause a disturbance which affects foraging
00:40 and some of their behaviour.
00:42 So what we want to do is we want people who are out kayaking, swimming, boating to realise
00:47 that they need to keep their distance and in particular not form a wall across the piers
00:52 when they're watching the dolphins come in.
00:53 So the message is to enjoy the wildlife but just to be careful and consider what you're
00:58 doing and respect them.
01:00 In this getting close to dolphins and possibly interfering with their behaviour is it becoming
01:03 an increasing problem?
01:05 Yeah, I think what's happening is there's that fascination to come and see the wildlife
01:09 and people want to meet them when they come in and that's where the problem is because
01:12 there's a dolphin coming in seeing that there, they then have to turn away because they're
01:16 not sure what it is.
01:17 So what we want is for people to continue their activities going in particular directions
01:21 but not actually following or blocking the dolphin when it's coming in.
01:25 So it's being able to enjoy it and nine times out of ten if you continue doing what you're
01:28 doing and not chasing them they're very inquisitive and they'll actually come over and want to
01:32 engage with yourself.
01:33 Can you just tell me what the Dis event is all about then please?
01:38 So today we're here with VELCA as part of Operation Seabird, it's a day of action, we've
01:43 got multiple partnership ages all working together.
01:46 It's important that we do to tackle the issues of the increasing, shall we say, increases
01:50 of disturbance to marine wildlife which is a wildlife we respect and we enjoy, we want
01:54 to respect and enjoy it, particularly animals like seals which like to come out of the water
01:59 and like to haul out on our reaches and our surrounding areas around the coastline in
02:04 the north east.
02:05 We need to leave them alone, we need to keep them 100 metres away, give them some space,
02:09 respect the wildlife but responsible around it.
02:12 We're just coming to the end of the breeding birds, it's the breeding seabird season but
02:15 of course at that time as well we have some ground nesting birds in the north east like
02:19 the terns that nest on the beaches, we need them to be left alone.
02:22 So Operation Seabird is really successful, it's about community engagement, it's all
02:26 to partners and really enjoy the wildlife we've got.
02:30 Please respect it, please be responsible around it, keep a safe distance.
02:34 [Birds chirping]