Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Seal pups going from Strangth to Strangth
Record number of mammals in Ulster lough
STRANGFORD Lough had record numbers of grey seal sightings this year, it has emerged.
It is proving the perfect nursery for the species, with 181 pups born in its waters this autumn – the most since numbers were first counted in 1992.
There were also 282 adults recorded in the Co Down lough at the peak of the breeding season.
National Trust’s Strangford Lough lead ranger Hugh Thurgate said: “We started counting seals in 1992.
“So you were getting six or seven, maybe 11 – very low numbers of grey seal pups.
“Then slowly but surely they increased and by the mid-noughties they were into the 40s.
“And then it jumped quite significantly and by 2015 we got 100 pups for the first time.
“And then in 2017 they went past 150 – there were 172 that year.
“So they went from just over
100 to 172 pretty rapidly and this year was an all-time high at 181.”
He added several factors have contributed to the growth.
Mr Thurgate, who has worked on Strangford for two decades, said: “From a security point of view it’s perfect for them.
“The seals are looking for a safe and protected place to raise their young – somewhere that provides protection from the elements and is relatively free from disturbance – and Strangford Lough offers them that. Pups are quite vulnerable. Seals give birth on the beach and if you get stormy weather, tidal surges and high spring tides, the pups aren’t capable of thermoregulating properly when they are young and you get high fatalities.
“So if you’ve got calmer conditions it’s going to give your pups a better chance of survival.”
The mid lough islands of Strangford are a favourite spot for the seals to haul out, with large groups, known as rookeries, now a regular sight for boat users who know where to look.
But it is not all good news for all species in the vicinity as while the greys are thriving, the common/ harbour seal is struggling.
They used to be the more prevalent in the lough, with an estimated population of around 850 in the mid-1980s. However, the common seal numbers were more than halved by a devastating distemper virus that swept through Europe around that time and the species has never really re-established itself in Strangford.