The 33p beach toy a Hayle charity says is killing seals

It looks like harmless fun on the sand: a bright plastic ring, easy to throw, easy for the wind to carry off. For a curious young seal, a lost one of these can turn into a collar it never grows out of.

That’s the warning behind a campaign a Cornwall-based charity is asking people to get behind. The Seal Research Trust, based in Hayle, has been sharing the “Save Our Seals from Flying Rings” petition on Facebook, and it has now passed 64,500 signatures.

What’s actually happening to the seals

Flying rings, the plastic rings sold as frisbee-style beach and dog toys, are turning up lost and discarded in UK waters. According to the campaign, seals treat them as a plaything, and a moment of curiosity ends with the ring around the animal’s neck.

As a seal grows, the ring doesn’t. It tightens, cutting into the skin and causing infection, pain and, in many cases, death. Some seals can be rescued. Many can’t.

Why it costs so much to put right

The numbers behind the campaign are stark. A flying ring costs a wholesaler around 33p to import. Rescuing and treating a single entangled seal, when rescue is even possible, can cost a wildlife rehabilitation hospital up to £15,000.

The petition was started by Gareth Richards, who spends his time on the rescue and rehabilitation of injured seals as well as their wider conservation. It’s being run under the banner of the UK Seal Alliance, which is calling on the government to stop the import and sale of flying rings altogether, arguing the UK could be the first country to ban them outright. The campaign also wants retailers to swap flying rings for solid, non-plastic disc-style frisbees, which don’t carry the same risk if they end up lost in the water.

What you can do

The campaign is asking people to do three things: sign the petition, share it, and think twice before buying a flying ring for the beach or the dog park in the first place. There’s also a dedicated Facebook page for the campaign with updates, and a set of free resources for anyone who wants to help spread the word locally.

64,500 signatures is, in the words of the campaign itself, phenomenal. It isn’t there yet.

📷Credit: Seal Research Trust