Two healthy grey seal pups recorded at South Walney for 12th year — SkimNews
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- Cumbria Wildlife Trust confirmed two healthy grey seal pups were spotted at South Walney Nature Reserve near Barrow, marking the 12th consecutive year the colony has bred at the site.
- South Walney Nature Reserve is home to Cumbria's only breeding grey seal colony and a major haul-out site; grey seals first began breeding there in 2015 and have been recorded every year since.
- Two pups spotted earlier this summer did not survive, making the newly recorded pair the first healthy pups of the current season found during a routine seal count.
- A record 14 pups were counted at the reserve last year, and marine conservation officer Beth Churn said the trust hopes there will be "many more to come" this season.
- The highest grey seal count ever recorded at the site was 563 in December 2024, continuing an upward trend from 518 (2021), 483 (2019), and 360 (2018).
- Three viewing hides around the haul-out site let visitors watch seals from a safe distance, and a new hide at Groyne is currently being built that will include a telescope; the trust asks the public to stay at least 100m away to avoid disturbance.
Why it matters: South Walney's grey seal numbers have nearly doubled in six years — from 360 in 2018 to 563 in December 2024 — a trend the trust attributes to sustained disturbance-minimization around the haul-out site, though the deaths of two earlier pups this season show even an established breeding colony remains vulnerable.
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