Keith the seal spotted at Ketch Caravan Park, Worcester

1:37pm Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News By Catherine Phillips, Reporter

Keith the seal has returned. Picture by Lee Charlton. Keith the seal has returned. Picture by Lee Charlton.

KEITH the seal has returned to Worcester after being spotted in the waters by Ketch Caravan Park.

Lee Charlton, from Kempsey, was aboard his boat The Kingfisher yesterday evening when the female seal popped up from the waters.

The 38-year-old also saw the seal this morning as it tried to get on to the riverbanks outside the caravan park on Bath Road.

Mr Charlton, who pictured the marine mammal, said: "I was down by the river when she was spotted here before.

"I didn't expect to see her again at all because I thought she had gone back out to sea."

Keith had been spotted recently by stand up paddle boarders downstream in Gloucestershire following a couple of months of no reported sightings.

The news will delight thousands of Facebook fans who joined the Save Keith the Seal page following The Angling Trust's attempts to get hold of a licence to shoot Keith after some members feared it was depleting fish stocks.

The trust eventually reached an agreement with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue that she would be transported back to the sea.

However, she disappeared during the winter's flooding before any action was taken.

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Comments(20)

Jay1981 says...
1:55pm Wed 20 Mar 13

He should be put back to sea. The fish stocks are important to the river.

We need to get anglers back on the seven. With this seal there eating all the stock up isn't good.

If it isn't the seal its people catching and eating them. Easten europeans
seam to do this alot ?

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CJH says...
2:14pm Wed 20 Mar 13

"this seal there eating all the stock up" All the stock? One seal only eats about 5% of its body weight in a day. Don't think it'll empty the Severn any time soon. And what's this? You've brought the debate round to Eastern Europeans. Please be more specific - exactly how many fish are they catching and eating? How many do you know personally who are doing this? Do you actually have any facts, or is it all hearsay, rumour and invention?

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Robot 3021 says...
2:40pm Wed 20 Mar 13

I heard Keith was an Eastern European seal.

:AngryFace:

Truly hilarious levels of paranoia. Lovely stuff, it's put a huge smile on my face.

And I'm a robot, so that takes some doing.

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roni skye says...
3:07pm Wed 20 Mar 13

One seal eating all the stock, what a joke ha, ha. Glad she is back, she will attract more visitor's to the river than fishermen will.

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sugarlump says...
3:09pm Wed 20 Mar 13

welcome back Keith!! Nice carvery at the Ketch as well if you want a change from fish!!

Jay1981 - bad karma man!!

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LisaVentura says...
4:08pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Welcome back to Worcester Keith...I so want to see you, hopefully I'll get a chance to now you're back :)

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JohnCSG says...
4:14pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Yes, its true, Keith is a Romanian seal who came to the UK and claimed to be a self employed angler. Now we are simply giving her all the fish she should be working for herself. Send her home!

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WAG2315 says...
4:17pm Wed 20 Mar 13

wow,people in worcester complaining about a seal eating the fish.next they'll be buying a house next to a road and complain about the noise of the traffic,they'll buy a house next to the railway line and complain about the noise of the trains,they'll complain about a plane flying in the sky all day.oops,sorry.my mistake,some seem to have done this already :-)

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countrybumpkin999 says...
4:50pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Hope they train the seal to eat all the Otters and Comorants !! ha ha

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cahaph says...
5:19pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Jay1981 says...
1:55pm Wed 20 Mar 13

He should be put back to sea. The fish stocks are important to the river.

We need to get anglers back on the seven. With this seal there eating all the stock up isn't good.

If it isn't the seal its people catching and eating them. Easten europeans
seam to do this alot ?”


I would agree that the sea would be the best place for Keith, however why do we need the anglers back, what gives them the right over nature....nothing anglers do is natural lets face it!!!

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Tim.Deeming says...
6:38pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Jay seems to be giving out a subliminal message in his / her post... all those unexpected numbers.....

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CJH says...
8:12pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Jay1981's gone a bit quiet. I was hoping he/she would have come back with all the facts and figures by now...can't think why not ;-)

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scolesy says...
9:47pm Wed 20 Mar 13

Great another chance to make my slippers,,,,,.Will not miss this time round,,,,

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Sassy_Girl says...
12:38pm Thu 21 Mar 13

On Monday night walking past the Diglis Weir, and friend and I thought we could see a floating body in the water. We soon realised that it was Keith catching fish.. It was a delight to see.

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leemo79 says...
1:28pm Thu 21 Mar 13

Jay1981 wrote:
He should be put back to sea. The fish stocks are important to the river.

We need to get anglers back on the seven. With this seal there eating all the stock up isn't good.

If it isn't the seal its people catching and eating them. Easten europeans
seam to do this alot ?
Really? eating ALL the fish?? Oh that gave me a good chuckle! Oh my giddy-arny!!

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Lilac Girl says...
7:08pm Thu 21 Mar 13

While out walking today, saw Keith the seal fishing at Bevere, most enjoyable.

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Spetchley Dave says...
12:39pm Fri 22 Mar 13

If they are so worried about Keith fishing, why don't they just take his rod licence off him?

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Cadbury says...
9:18pm Fri 22 Mar 13

I think they should catch Keith sedate him/her and take him/her back to where it came from it cant be swimming up and down little tiny rivers it needs big, wide open spaces with fresh salty water not brown **** contaminated water

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Cadbury says...
9:20pm Fri 22 Mar 13

* poo

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nikki09 says...
10:18pm Fri 22 Mar 13

Some of the comments on here really do make me angry.

'eating all the stock' ...? Really? Now come on here... Yes i understand fish are important for our rivers, but what harm is a few seals every now and then? They are causing no harm so just leave them be! ..Its nice to see them anyway!

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