Locals were left horrified after dead seals with suspected gunshot wounds washed up on a Cork beach.
The shocking discovery was made in Ardnahinch Beach near Shanagarry, where eight seals have been found in recent weeks.
A number of other seals have also been recently discovered along the coastlines of Waterford and Wexford.
Horrifying images show what appear to be gunshot wounds on the dead mammals, 38 of which have been found dead in 2021 alone.
Melanie Croce of Seal Rescue Ireland said that a post mortem would be needed to determine the cause of deaths.
But she said this normally isn't possible due to a lack of funding.
Speaking to Patricia Messinger on C103's Cork Today Show, Ms Croce said: "We've been keeping a dead seal database for the last five years and we've seen a huge rise in the last year.
"In fact, in 2020 we had the highest number of reports we've ever had, with 202 dead seals being reported from all over the coastlines, which was double the previous year.
"We've already had 38 reported over the last few weeks and over a third of them have come from Cork and as you say, eight reports in the last nine days have been from the Ardnahinch, Ballycotton and Shanagarry areas."
When asked specifically about images showing the gruesome wounds, she said: "We do get this question quite often and we do see a lot of dead seals who have these holes in them.
"Now a lot of these seals that get washed up are very decomposed and it would be almost impossible to determine the cause of death without a post mortem necropsy.
"As the seals are a protected species under EU and Irish law, this would fall under the National Parks and Wildlife Service to carry out a proper investigation and post mortem.
"But unfortunately, they just really haven't had the funding or resources in order to be able to do that.
"So it's really, really hard to determine exactly what the cause of death is."
She added: "One of the things we're really seen impacting seals is climate change."
