I once swam nose-to-nose with a common seal, although time has likely exaggerated the proximity. My 14-year-old self was close enough to consider the animal’s expression though, as we bobbed gently on a flat, Hebridean sea.
It had a rounded, whiskered face, with dark, slightly mournful eyes reminiscent of our pet golden retriever. I felt no threat, but perhaps I might have, had this been a larger, grey seal (Halichoerus grypus). Instead, the soft features of a common or harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) implied placidity, and, although I made for shore, I paddled without panic.
How many common seals are in the UK?
Common seals are actually less common than greys, with between 35,000 and 50,000 in the UK. They are most frequent around the coast of Scotland, particularly the northern and western Isles, where legends of selkies, creatures that can shape-shift between seals and humans, are familiar in folklore.
What do common seals eat?
Common seals feed predominantly on fish, though, as opportunistic feeders, they may also eat crustaceans and cephalopods such as squid and octopus and cuttlefish. While they may travel up to 50km between ‘haul-outs’, they remain faithful to familiar locations to do so.
While on land, their immobility leaves them vulnerable, particularly the pups, which were once hunted for their fur. Now protected by law, seals have few natural predators, although they are a favoured prey of orca (Orcinus orca).
A greater risk comes from disease, particularly phocine distemper virus (PDV) which causes respiratory problems and has a high mortality rate. Outbreaks in 1988 and 2002 saw some colonies in western Europe reduced by half, and as females can only bear a single pup each year, population recovery is slow.
How big are common seals?
Adult common seals rarely exceed 180cm in length and 150kg in weight. Pups are between 8kg and 15kg and are able to swim and dive within a few hours. They are born in early summer and, unlike the fluffy white fur of grey seal pups, already have their grey-brown, spotted adult coat.
Top image: A Harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) swimming in the water of Windy Bay in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. (Credit: Wolfgang Kaehler/Getty Images)
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