Concerns grow over grey seals
 Bad weather is washing
record numbers of starving baby seals onto Irish shores.
Some 62 seals aged between three and four months have already been rescued
— with some weighing less than when they were born.
Brendan Price from the Irish Seal Sanctuary said near-constant winds had
scattered the lightweight seal cubs and left them unable to feed properly.
He said: “While there have been no huge storms there has still been
no let-up in the winds throughout October, November and December and those
sustained winds have left us touching on a record. It has been a very,
very busy season.”
Baby grey seals are usually born in late autumn and are quickly weaned
off their mother’s milk.
Mr Price said the emaciated nature of some of the pups washed up this
winter suggested some had not fed properly for weeks.
He said: “We are getting an amount of cubs in that have gone back
to their birth weight or less. They are totally starving some are just
skin and bone.”
The demand for space at the Dublin-based sanctuary means seals are having
to be released before they would usually be.
The North of Ireland sanctuary is also experiencing similar difficulties
and has had to move some pups to shelters in Wales.
Marine researcher Michelle Cronin said grey seals’ breeding habits
left them particularly vulnerable to winter storms.
She said: “Young seals would be weaned off their mother after the
first few weeks and that leads to a very high mortality rate.
“Also they breed in far more exposed places that tend to bear the
brunt of stormy conditions.”
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