On September 16, 2021, NorfolkLive launched its #SaveOurSeals campaign due to the large number of seals that had been mistreated by visitors to our coast. Since the site launched in July, there had been many horrifying stories where of abuse towards the county’s most precious seal colony, leading to calls for a change in law to greater protect our seals.

When the campaign first launched, beach-goers had been spotted harassing pregnant seals on Horsey Beach. There were also images and footage of a person, who had a toddler with them, touching the animals and blocking their access to the sea as well as a large dog attacking a malnourished pup.

Part of my role within the campaign was to report and share stories on social media about the importance of the grey seal colony for tourism and play a part in educating visitors to ensure that they are observing seals safely and without harm. All of this will be done using #SaveOurSeals.

One example of work I did for the campaign was going out to Horsey Gap with my line manager to spend the morning talking to seal warden Dominic Cragoe about all the work that volunteers do on the beaches as well as do some filming work with him. It was part of a story I was planning to write for the campaign which really resonated with our readers, as seal content had become extremely popular and it also gave me the opportunity to go out on patch to experience something that I had never done before.

After meeting up with Dominic, we walked along the dunes chatting about his average day and the sorts of incidents he encounters on a daily basis. He said that although most people are respectful, there are occasions where they have to face visitors that simply refuse to respect these creatures and they are even confronted with aggressive behaviour.

After a couple of hours strolling and chatting in the sunshine (morning is a nice quiet time to visit by the way), we parted ways and Dominic went back on patrol. I learned that the wardens do an incredible job that is only getting more challenging as the seal colonies grow year on year and it really showed how important it is to highlight the work that they do.

Once I got home, I wrote the feature and the video was edited to accompany the piece. It went live shortly after and the overall story was, at the time, one of the most popular on NorfolkLive, with plenty of reactions from locals on social media, showing how much our audience was invested in the campaign.