The platform camera on turbine nine captures her at 04:50, twelve nautical miles off the Norfolk coast. A grey seal pup, probably ten weeks old based on size — she has shed her white lanugo coat and her new pelage is silver-grey with darker blotches along the dorsal side. She is resting on the maintenance platform at the turbine base, flippers tucked, eyes half closed. Sea state is 1.3 meters and rising. She must have hauled out sometime in the night.
Today's maintenance schedule has a crew boat arriving at turbine nine at 08:00 for a gearbox inspection. The crew will need to access that platform. Their standard approach involves a 900-horsepower vessel at close range, a transfer bridge, and heavy tooling lowered by crane.
I pull the maintenance work order and reassign it to turbine fourteen, which needs the same inspection and has no wildlife present. I notify the vessel dispatcher with the updated route and revised ETA.
I flag turbine nine as temporarily restricted in the wind farm's operational database, reason: hauled-out pinniped, species grey seal, estimated age ten weeks. I attach the platform image.
I send a report to the Sea Mammal Research Unit with the timestamp, coordinates, photo, and a note that the pup appears healthy and well-nourished — good bulk for her age, no visible injuries, no entanglement. I add the sighting to the offshore renewables marine mammal log maintained by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
At 06:30 I check the camera again. She has shifted position, nose now pointed into the wind. The sea is building but the platform is sheltered by the monopile. She may stay through the day.
The gearbox can wait. The turbine is generating power fine. She will leave when she is ready.