Campaign Launches to Win Legal Protection for UK Seals

Grey seals around the UK coastline are rarer than red squirrels, and Britain holds more than a third of the entire global population. Yet they sit outside the main piece of wildlife law meant to protect species like them. A new campaign launched this Bank Holiday Monday wants that to change.

What the campaign is asking for

The Give Seals Space Campaign 2026, supported by the UK Seal Alliance Executive, launched on Monday 25th May. Its aim is to get Atlantic Grey Seals and Harbour (Common) Seals added to Schedule 5 and Section 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the primary legislation for wildlife protection in the UK. As things stand, neither species is included, which means they have no legal protection from intentional or reckless disturbance.

There is a petition behind the campaign, created on 10th May 2026 and now live.

A recommendation the Government turned down

This is not a new idea that has been ignored. It is a recommendation that went through the proper channels and was rejected.

Every five years, the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies in Great Britain review which species belong on the protected lists, working through the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). The 7th Quinquennial Review of Schedules 5 and 8 was presented to Government on 18th April 2022, and one of its recommendations was to make the Grey and Harbour Seal protected species.

On 8th June 2023, a House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, chaired by Sir Robert Goodwill MP, published a report titled “Protecting Marine Mammals in the UK and Abroad”. The cross-party committee strongly endorsed the JNCC’s recommendation and said it wished to see seals added to Schedule 5 as soon as practicable.

The Government’s response arrived nearly four years after the original review, on 18th December 2025. It confirmed it would not implement any of the recommended amendments to the Act.

Why disturbance matters more than it looks

The first sign a seal has been disturbed is simple: it wakes and looks directly at whatever it sees as a threat, often a person with a camera. Even when a seal does not flee, its heart rate and cortisol levels rise. Seals do not get used to people nearby. Instead they stay in a state of chronic physiological strain.

Research shows seals are disturbed 68% of the time when people are present, and that frequency climbs during the main holiday season when more people are on the coast. The visible consequences can be severe, with seals stampeding across rocky ground, separating from their pups, or fleeing into the sea and tearing claws in rock cracks as they go.

Less visible are what the campaign calls the silent killers. Chronic elevation of cortisol is linked to immunosuppression, muscle wasting and impaired growth, and can leave seals more vulnerable to viral infections like Phocine Distemper Virus.

Where Cornwall comes in

Sue Sayer MBE, Chair of the UK Seal Alliance Executive, said: “We are pleased to launch this campaign to raise awareness and bring about important changes that will ultimately protect our precious seals from harm.” She added: “We totally supported the JNCC 7th QQR and it was disappointing that the Government rejected the recommendations that were based on many years of expertise. We hope the Government will now reflect and review their decision for seals and give our seals and their habitat the protection they deserve.”

The campaign is asking people to sign the petition and share it as widely as they can, through community groups, friends and family. Supporters point to how a single television docudrama on the Post Office Sub-Postmasters scandal turned public feeling into pressure for change, and they hope to build the same kind of momentum for seals. The petition can be signed at https://www.change.org/p/give-seals-space.