Living Seas Seals of South Walney
South Walney Nature Reserve, which occupies the southern tip of Walney Island, has long been renowned for its variety of breeding and overwintering waders, wildfowl and seabirds. However, in more recent years it’s the larger residents – grey seals – that have been atracting the interest of visitors, staff and volunteers. Senior Marine Conservation Officer Dr Emily Baxter provides an insight into these fascinating marine mammals.
South Walney’s grey seal colony has grown over the last 30 years to become the main haul-out site in northwest England. Photo: Lindsey Dickings/NW Evening Mail
In the early 1980s, only the occasional grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) was recorded around the nature reserve, but by the mid-1990s it had become the main haul-out site for grey seals in the northwest of England. Over time, numbers have increased and grey seals are now present on and around the nature reserve year-round. In more recent years the reserve’s protected beaches have become established as an active breeding colony.
Grey seals spend about two-thirds of their time at sea, foraging or travelling between areas; however, they haul-out in large numbers on land to rest, breed, undertake their annual moult and digest food. They are highly sensitive to disturbance and somewhat ungainly on land so they tend to prefer haul-out sites with minimal human disturbance and easy access to the sea. Public access to the remote shingle spit on the southern tip of Walney Island is prohibited, providing the seals with an ideal home.
Over the years we have developed a regular monitoring programme, conducting fortnightly seal surveys between September and March; avoiding disturbance to the summer breeding seabirds. The surveys have traditionally been conducted using land-based observations. The number, sex and behaviour of the seals is recorded to gain an understanding of how the seals use the site and how they are affected
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0 Year 26 Cumbrian Wildlife | May 2019
by human disturbance such as boats, aircraſt and recreational activity close to the colony.
There has been a steady increase in the maximum number of seals recorded on the site at any one time, with a more dramatic increase observed over the past four years. This year the maximum number of seals recorded was 483!
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surveying Gap in
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Maximum number of seals observed
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