The best coastal wildlife encounters happen when you go slow, keep your distance and take your time
The accruing of stuff got pretty cheap for a while. Taking advantage of open international economies has meant that snapping up a water bottle, a dog lead or a stainless-steel time capsule is inexpensive compared to the past.
Jeans can be as cheap as £8 now. As a teenager, alarmed to discover that I had bled into a pair while trying them on, I hurriedly spent more than I could afford on a £60 pair of second-hand Levi’s. That’s £104.27 in today’s money. Now, it seems stuff might be getting pricey once more after an economic storm given momentum by high energy prices. A trend towards gathering experiences instead is emerging. Perhaps because experiences are infinitely more fulfilling than stuff. Or perhaps because experiences can be filmed, posted online, translated into numbers and exchanged for stuff – who knows? I take photos of every standout experience, not to post online but because it serves my memory and reminds me I’ve had some lovely times. But what comes first? The experience or the intention to take a memento from it?
Across the coastlines of staycation summers, the question takes the form: do our filmed leisure pursuits trump the needs of our wildlife? Around this time of year, wondrous sightings of basking sharks, super-pods of hundreds of dolphins and occasional humpback and minke whales can be seen from our shores. But with a 20% uptick in visitor numbers when Covid travel was so difficult, so too came reports of increased wildlife disturbance.
The Seal Research Trust showed me images of seals being flushed off rocks by boat wash, kayak seal selfies taken just a few feet away, dogs biting seals and barking in their faces, stampeding and tombstoning injuries as seals made a panicked escape into the sea. I’m told that even the act of looking up at a nearby human has an energy cost by increasing heart and breathing rate and the release of stress hormones. Repeated chronically through the season and there is a physiological toll, as seals, especially pups, rely on the energy stored in their blubber to get through the next winter. Their advice is to give seals 100m of space (football field-ish) on land, sea and – via drones – in the air.
SLOW DOWN, STOP AND LOOK
As summer arrives and the warm Gulf S
