The harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) has recovered in numbers from the distemper plague of the 1980s that led to severe depletion of the species.
There are now about 55,000 living around the UK shores – about 50% of the EU population. Harbour seals are also called common seals but that is a misnomer since there are about 120,000 of their larger cousins, grey seals, around our coasts.
The population is stable but many of both species are washed up dead on our beaches. Funding has been put in place to find out why, with the public asked to report sightings as they do with dead whales.
The suggestion is that seals, being at the top of the food chain, may die from an accumulation of chemicals and plastics from eating fish, squid, crabs and other shellfish. They dive deep for fish and squid and can stay under for 10 minutes.
Given good conditions, female harbour seals can live to 30 years and males to 20, and have one pup a year in mid-summer. They occur all round the Scottish coast but the biggest UK concentration is in the Wash where they can give birth on the mudflats at low tide and mum and youngster are able to swim away when the tide comes in.
