A Natural ‘Seal’ of Approval

By Jennifer Harnden October 2023

As many of you know, I am passionate about my wildlife photography, and have been sharing some of the love on my social media and a sample of my favourite images have also been posted here on my website www.jenniferharnden.com So, to add to this, mainly for my own musings, I thought it may be a nice addition, to occasionally capture some thoughts and findings of my personal wildlife adventures and other photography encounters with an occasional blog! So here we are!

So Saturday, this week for me, involved a lot of driving up and down the country to support my husband with one of his thrilling hobbies. However, upon return, it was the best decision to make a very slight detour before heading home, to stretch my legs and grab some fresh air to stroll down the steep hill to the viewing points to see the wonderful seal colony near Ravenscar again, having been many times over the years before.

Did you know this about seals?

Now I am absolutely no expert on seals, but what I have learned is that there are around thirty-three species of seals in the world, that can be themed into the following groups: the walrus, eared seals, and the earless seals.

In the United Kingdom the government have stated on their website that there are two types of seal in the UK; the grey seal and the common seal (both of which I understand are from the ‘Earless’ seal group) and, guess what?…… both types of these charismatic marine mammals can be seen near Ravenscar in North Yorkshire, and have become somewhat of a tourist attraction for nature lovers.

My visit to Ravenscar this weekend

Just a short but steep and blustery walk down to the viewpoints I was this time welcomed with the sight of around fifty of these grey and common seals who come here to breed. I could easily see that some of the seals were heavily pregnant and there were also young pups too. I noticed the pointy, much longer snout of the common seal. The grey seals have a much wider spaced apart nostrils. Always a sight to honour seeing seals resting on our rugged coastline and bobbing about in the turbulent waves.

Photo taken from a higher point up on the cliff

In the past I have walked right down onto the rocky beach, but not this time. As I noticed there were many seals resting I know that heading onto the rocky beach is definitely not the best idea if there are any seals present, as tempting at it is to get up close and personal to these interesting creatures! The Government, local authorities and organisations such as the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have some very useful guidance and information on the protection of seals in the UK.

Seals when under threat whilst resting

The first few months of a pup's life are tough. They must quickly learn to hunt for themselves and negotiate challenging sea conditions. Both pups and adult seals need to ‘haul out’ on our coast to rest, recover and breed, and it’s during these moments they are particularly vulnerable to disturbance from us. If people get too close, or are noisy, it can disturb the seals desperate for rest. When under threat they then panic and try to get to the safe place, the sea, injuring themselves whilst moving on the sharp rocky ground.

Viewing from a distance

When disturbed, seals may get stressed, they often gain injuries during the panic. Disturbances, as advised by The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust can also all use up energy reserves that they need for vital activities such as swimming, hunting, resting, digesting food, and hauling themselves out of the water. Sadly also I read somewhere, some people do not have their dogs on leads in situations where near the seals and I understand there have been reported cases where seals and the seal pups have been attacked!

To prevent disturbances, it is simply best to view quietly, from a distance. I noticed on my walk there were a few signs around to help guide the public which were useful.

Volunteers supporting the cause

I bumped into two fantastic volunteers whilst viewing the mammals from above, whom told me that this particular colony near Ravenscar is really struggling to survive. They fear around 50% of the pups near Ravenscar won’t make it through the winter this year (2023).

I suggested whether the area down to the rocky beach where they rest be taped off from the public, even just for a particular short period of time, to protect the seals from harm whilst they rest perhaps? Surely this would help with their struggle, to help reduce the numbers of people getting close to the seals, just a thought anyway but I'm sure this will have been considered.

It great to see the volunteers doing some great work, they are a fantastic asset, doing what they can to advise the public to keep their distance from this rocky beach area and to keep very quiet when near seals. There will be enough threats they have to regularly face anyway I’m sure, even from themselves. The ‘Wild Isles’ David Attenborough programme I watched on iPlayer recently reported how they are also risk to themselves too; females attacking pups who aren’t in their family, to fighting males not taking any notice of the young pups in there way!

The natural 'seal' of approval

Viewing from up slightly higher up from the beach, I settled myself down and enjoyed their presence from afar, capturing a few photographs whilst listening to them singing, groaning and playing with each other. I could clearly see how pregnant some of them were and it was good to see a good group enjoying a rest. By following guidance of the experts, I am sure the seals would give their ‘seal’ of approval, for the distance and privacy they so need. By helping them in this small and respectful way, here’s hoping they can keep growing in numbers and we can all continue to enjoy seeing them on our UK coastlines.