In 20 years, grey seals have had more than 2,500 births at the beach of Norfolk during pupping season.
This year’s count was called off due to high tides which forced the animals on top of the dunes at Horsey Gap making it too dangerous for volunteers to carry out their usual count.
Peter Ansell (chairman of Friends of Horsey Seals) said that he would make an “educated guess”Since November, a minimum number of 2,500 grey seal pups were born.
He claimed that the annual increase has been 10% and shared his thoughts with the PA news agency. “It’s a bit like the human population really.
“The older ones are living longer so they’re not dying off so quick, and the younger ones are reproducing at a rapid rate, and every year you’ve got a fresh batch of new mothers coming along, in addition to all the established ones.”
Seals are born along the stretch of beach that runs between Waxham & Winterton.
Ansell stated that if there are more high tides, future counts might have to be canceled.
People see the grey seal colony in Horsey Gap on the Norfolk coast (Joe Giddens/PA).PA Wire/PA Pictures – Joe Giddens
“This probably will happen again next year, because if we’re going to continue to get these extra-high tides then the seals will do what they’ve done this year – they’ll go for the high ground and we may find it impossible in future to do the counts.
“But we’re talking about nature here, and with nature you’ve no idea what’s going to happen next week, never mind next year,”He said.
Ansell claimed that he can recall a surge tide from around 2013, which was “like a mini-tsunami”, adding: “We lost about half the pups that were on the beach at that time.”
He stated that there were approximately 600 people in the country at the time, and that 300 of them were lost.
“They were swept out to sea and that was it,”He said.
The grey seal colony at the shoreline has been moving to the dunes in an attempt to escape higher tides. (Joe Giddens/PAPA Wire/PA Pictures – Joe Giddens
Ansell stated that there are many open beaches further along the coast, and that there is the possibility of seals migrating a bit north or south.
“I really can’t forecast with any accuracy what’s going to happen next year.
“At the moment it currently has expanded from a very, very tiny strip of beach… in say 2002/2003 there were less than 100 seals on the beach.
“There were much less than 100 pups born. And from there it’s gone from 50 or 60 pups… in 20 years it’s gone up to 2,500.
“That gives you an idea the way they’ve been increasing.”