Campaign is on to save River Severn seal Keith

But the grey female seal, who has been named Keith, has also sparked anger from anglers who say she is eating her way through the River Severn's fish stocks.

A bid to capture the mammal and return her to the sea was called off in November.

And now more than 2,700 people have signed a petition calling for the seal, who even has her own Twitter account, to be allowed to stay in the river.

Residents in Stourport and Bewdley as well as further afield at Worcester have been reporting sightings of the seal since November 2012.

A year later the Angling Trust was granted a licence to catch the seal so she could be returned to the sea.

It proved unsuccessful and the licence expired on December 31. But January 1 signalled the start of the 'open season' so until August 31, it is not necessary to have a licence to capture or kill seals in accordance with the Conservation of Seals Act 1970.

Now campaigners, who fear for the seal's safety have a launched a petition asking the Angling Trust and Natural England to 'leave Keith alone and to let her live in the River Severn in peace, or return to sea of her own accord if and when she is ready to do so'.

• Click here to sign the petition

The petition, which has been set up by campaigners Lisa Ventura and Dave Grubb and has around 2,760 signatures, says: "Keith the seal first appeared in the River Severn in November 2012 and was named Keith after a Royalist Commander in the English Civil War, although it turned out later that he is in fact a she.

"Since then various attempts to try and get her moved back to sea have been made, rather than leaving her be in the Severn.

"While she should be in the sea she has made herself quite at home where she is and seems to be very happy."

When the Angling Trust was granted a licence to catch Keith in November, it planned to take the 4ft-long seal to a wildlife sanctuary before releasing her back into the sea.

The plan was to lure Keith into a lock using sardines as bait.

After cornering the seal, they hoped to place her in a specially designed sling before putting her on a boat to be taken away to a new home.

The Angling Trust was working with the Mercia Inshore Search and Rescue (MISAR) and Natural England along with divers from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

The search was eventually called off after proving unsuccessful. Speaking at the time The Angling Trust's fisheries enforcement manager Dilip Sarkar said they wanted to return the seal to its natural habitat where it could live alongside other seals.

Bob Lawrence, director of wildlife at West Midland Safari Park, said today he believed the seal was best left in the river, saying she could live just as well as if she was in the sea.

"Personally, I say leave her be. I can't see how just one seal would have that much of an impact on the fishing stocks.

"There isn't any guarantee that if the seal is returned to the sea, she won't return," he added.

It's not unusual for seals to venture out of the sea. On Sunday, a grey seal pup was found 40 miles inland in Cumbria.

A search and rescue team was drafted in to help capture the animal so it could be returned to sea.

The team's British Divers and Marine Life Rescue trained medics retrieved the animal and took it back to their station where it was weighed and confirmed as heavy enough to be returned to the sea.

The seal was transported to Walney in south Cumbria and released into the Irish Sea off the south end of the island.