{"id":36,"date":"2015-07-20T11:23:06","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T11:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/?page_id=36"},"modified":"2026-08-17T17:01:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T16:01:40","slug":"scos","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/scos\/","title":{"rendered":"Special Committee on Seals &#8211; SCOS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"244\" src=\"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/07\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4000\" style=\"width:630px;height:auto\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legislation.gov.uk\/ukpga\/1970\/30\/contents\">Conservation of Seals Act <\/a>1970 and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gov.scot\/Topics\/marine\/seamanagement\/marineact\">the Marine (Scotland) Act<\/a> 2010, the Natural Environment Research Council (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukri.org\/councils\/nerc\/\">NERC<\/a>) has a duty to provide scientific advice to government on matters related to the management of seal populations. There are two species of seal that live and breed in UK waters: harbour (also called common) seals (<em>Phoca vitulina vitulina<\/em>) and grey seals (<em>Halichoerus grypus<\/em>). NERC has appointed the Special Committee on Seals (SCOS) to review and formally issue this advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Formal advice is given annually based on the latest scientific information provided to SCOS by the Sea Mammal Research Unit. SMRU also provides to government scientific review of applications for licences to shoot seals, and information and advice in response to parliamentary questions and correspondence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The SCOS reports provide scientific advice on matters related to the management of seal populations. They begin with some general information on UK seals, give information on their current status, and address specific questions raised by UK government agencies. There are a number of standing questions that are answered every year, covering the following: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Seal population status and trends in abundance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Population structure and demographic rates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Interactions with fisheries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Estimates of Potential Biological Removal (PBR) values for UK seal monitoring units <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Seal health and disease<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The effects of climate change on seal populations<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Emerging techniques for monitoring UK seal populations <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Recommendations for research<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each year there are also a number of new questions asked by the government agencies, relating to emerging policy and management issues requiring scientific advice. In recent years these questions have covered topics such as the interactions between seals and renewable energy developments and the evidence for the impacts of disturbance on hauled out seals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2026\/04\/IL_IMG_7034-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"A fat grey seal pup snoozing in the grass\" class=\"wp-image-3953\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Copyright: Izzy Langley<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 and the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has a duty to provide scientific advice to government on matters related to the management of seal populations. There are two species of seal that live and breed in UK waters: harbour (also called common) seals&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-36","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4037,"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions\/4037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biology.st-andrews.ac.uk\/smru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}