Matt Carter

Can African penguins be brought back from the brink? Better designed no-fishing zones could help A new court order seeks to protect African penguins, which are critically endangered.

Studying overlap with fisheries can help highlight important areas for protection 🐧 Check out my little article! After spending so long learning to write for scientific audiences, it was an interesting experience learning how to write for the public but I highly recommend!

The NERC Special Committee on Seals (SCOS) 2025 report is now live on the SMRU website: www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2026/0....
Updated population trends analysis and advice to gov relating to management of UK seal populations 🦭📈📉

Seasonal and Diurnal Patterns of Harbor Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) Behavior and the Disruptive Effects of Vessel Presence in a High‐Traffic Coastal Habitat Chronic anthropogenic activity is an ongoing threat to the marine environment and presents unique challenges in shallow, coastal habitats where harbor porpoises reside. Harbor porpoises have high met...

New paper from @exeter.ac.uk finds that porpoises ‘buzz’ less when boats are nearby. 🐬

Read the full paper - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@rachlenn.bsky.social @vjhobson.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social @exetergses.bsky.social

🦑🌊🧪🌍🌐

Gray Seal Cannibalism at the Largest Colony in the World, Sable Island Click on the article title to read more.

Another new paper led by SMRU's @izzylangley.bsky.social: First observations of grey seal cannibalism at Sable Island, inc. a comparison of carcass pathology to cases in Scotland. Collab between SMRU, DFO and @dalhousie.bsky.social with support from @oceanfrontier.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/mms....

🦭 We have a new paper out! We developed an accessible framework for assessing the risk of collision between seals and operating tidal turbines.
⏭️ We found that most seal tracks moved near the turbine without collision.
Read it here: doi.org/10.1002/aqc....
@seamammalresearch.bsky.social

Temporal changes in the dietary niche of sympatric seals provides insight into the role of competition in population declines Competition theory suggests that interspecific prey competition can result in changes to the dietary niche, but obtaining timeseries of data from sympatric species experiencing temporal variation in ...

New publication led by SMRU's @izzylangley.bsky.social on competition between grey & harbour seals in Scotland using 20+ yrs of diet data. Many thanks to all who collected samples, and collaborators from the Lighthouse Field Station and Institute of Marine Research
#OA Paper: doi.org/10.1002/oik....

Our recent paper on grey and harbour seal transboundary distribution made the cover of @jappliedecology.bsky.social! 😀🦭Thanks to Dr Kelly Robinson of @seamammalresearch.bsky.social for the photo!
Check the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Phenology of nesting marine turtles in the Cayman Islands Climate-driven shifts in the phenology of species are altering ecosystems worldwide and have been documented in many species, including marine turtles. We present a 26 year analysis of population tren...

New paper on SEA TURTLE phenology 🐢 in the Cayman Islands.
Collaborative effort between @exeter.ac.uk and Cayman Islands DoE.

Full paper here - journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

IG reel - www.instagram.com/p/DTz3wiUDKyA/

@brendangodley.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social
🦑🌐🌍🐢🧪 #AcademicSky

This study provides the first comprehensive, regionally scalable distribution estimates for Seals across the Northwest European Shelf and its constituent countries 🦭 🌍 🌊

🔎 Find out more: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Great to see the use of SMRU Instrumentation tags on grey and harbour seals published in this recent paper by SMRU researchers @mattidcarter.bsky.social and @djfrussell.bsky.social 🦭🛰️

My first research paper, "Can Hematological Biomarkers Indicate Diagnoses and Prognosis in Stranded Harbor Seals (Phoca vitulina)?", has been published! Read it here: doi.org/10.1111/mms....

#publishedarticle #marinebiology #marinemammals #research @seamammalresearch.bsky.social

Scale-dependent foraging behaviour and habitat associations of two sympatric marine top predators - Landscape Ecology Context Theoretical research has considered how animals should optimise foraging strategies to maximise fitness, adapting search scale to exploit different habitats and minimise competition. Empirical...

New #OA paper in Landscape Ecology led by SMRU researchers @mattidcarter.bsky.social and @djfrussell.bsky.social reveals scale-dependent foraging behaviour and habitat associations of grey and harbour seals across the North Sea 🦭🧭 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Great talk by @izzylangley.bsky.social of @seamammalresearch.bsky.social at #BES2025 on intraguild predation and UK seal population trends. Check the paper here: doi.org/10.1111/1365...

More interesting SMRU research being presented at #BES2025 by Georgina Whittome! 🐋

SMRU PhD student Mia Goldman is presenting research on grey seal breeding phenology at #BES2025. Check out her poster 🦭

Another great SMRU poster at #BES2025 by Dr Faye Moyes. Check out the paper ok UK marine mammal bycatch here: academic.oup.com/icesjms/arti...

Thanks @mattidcarter.bsky.social for the fantastic effort in bringing together data from all over the North Sea. This will bring the distribution and habitat use of harbour and grey seals to a whole new level!🦭

+ our Jonas Teilmann, Anders Galatius, Rune Dietz & Jacob Nabe-Nielson contributed 🧪🌐🌱🌊

If you are attending the @britishecologicalsociety.org conference #BES2025 in Edinburgh, look out for exciting seal research from SMRU folk @izzylangley.bsky.social @mattidcarter.bsky.social @eva-mariab.bsky.social and Mia Goldman

At‐sea distribution of seals on the Northwest European Shelf: Towards transboundary conservation and management This study provides the first comprehensive, regionally scalable distribution estimates for pinnipeds across the NWES and its constituent countries. The modelling framework is adaptable to other cent....

New @jappliedecology.bsky.social paper: SMRU researchers @mattidcarter.bsky.social & @djfrussell.bsky.social led a large collaborative team to map the distribution of grey and harbour seals at sea across the Northwest European Shelf 🦭 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Spatial overlap alone downplays the level of interaction between a central place forager and the local fishery While spatial overlap is commonly used to quantify interactions, it may underestimate the true degree of competition between foraging predators and fishing vessels. Our alternative population-level m...

My first PhD paper is now out! We calculate overlap intensity between African penguins and the local purse seine fishery 🐧🐟

Check it out in @jappliedecology.bsky.social
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Bird Flu Ravaged the World’s Largest Elephant Seal Population, Study Finds

Bird Flu Ravaged the World’s Largest Elephant Seal Population, Study Finds www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/s...

Survival and recovery of three shark species in North-East Atlantic recreational fisheries Abstract. Understanding how sharks respond to catch and release (C&R) recreational fisheries is an important requirement for effective management. Post

NEW PAPER: Survival and recovery of three shark species in North-East Atlantic recreational fisheries.

academic.oup.com/icesjms/arti...

@garzonfrancesco.bsky.social @drmjwitt.bsky.social
🦑🐟🧪🌐🌊🎣

New study, collab with @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social: reduced adult survival for harbour seals in areas of pop. decline in Scotland. tinyurl.com/ys4hc3jw Mark-recapture models applied to photo-ID data from 3 sites with contrasting pop. trajectories to generate concurrent survival and fecundity rates.

Great Masters by Research opportunity working with Prof @darrencroft.bsky.social and collaborative team on killer whales!

More info in Darren's original post. ⬇️

🦑🌍🐬🧪🦤🌐
#AcademicSky

Our new publication with @strandings.bsky.social & #SMRUsealpred contributors. A first attempt at quantifying grey seal predation of marine mammals and the potential impact on declining harbour seal populatons. Check it out! doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Intraguild predation in sympatric seals and the effect on a declining population This study examined the prevalence, spatial extent, and temporal trends of grey seal intraguild predation (IGP). We demonstrated the utility of integrating disparate datasets to address conservation ....

New study led by SMRU's @izzylangley.bsky.social in collaboration with @strandings.bsky.social: evidence for grey seal predation of grey seals, harbour seals and harbour porpoises across Scotland, at levels that could prevent recovery of depleted populations. tinyurl.com/4r3wka6a

an event poster. the main image is a black and white photograph of a stranded, deceased killer whale, laying on its side on the sand of a beach setting. overlay text reads ' signals from the shore: what cetacean strandings reveal about pollution. weds 15th oct, huxley lecture theatre, zsl, 6-7.30pm, FREE.' there are logos for ZSL and CSIP at the top.

What can strandings of cetaceans tell us about the impact of marine pollution? 🐬

This @zslofficial.bsky.social and CSIP event, brings together experts (including our @sarahenelms.bsky.social) to explore major forms of marine pollution in our waters.

Free, online/in-person - lnkd.in/eEUiEbdH
🦑🐬🌊🌍🧪🌐

NEW RESEARCH
Application of spatially robust stereo-BRUV sampling for quantifying fish assemblages in UK marine protected areas

Watch the video to learn more, and find the paper here - esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

@owenexeter.bsky.social @kristianmetcalfe.bsky.social
🦑🧪🌍🐟

New @seamammalresearch.bsky.social & @smruinstrument.bsky.social research out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social, using #NIRS integrated into SMRU phone tags to measure the diving behaviour and physiology of the most incredible human divers - the all-female Haenyeo

www.cell.com/current-biol...