Record numbers of seal pups start lives on Norfolk coast

NEARLY 4,000 baby seals have been spotted on a five-mile stretch of coast in Norfolk, a record for the region.

Thousands of visitors flock to the coast between Waxham and Winterton each winter to see young seals weaned before re-entering the sea.

This year 3,796 pups have been born and 1,169 adults spotted. The number is almost double 2019-2020’s pup count of 2,069.

Peter Ansell, the chairman of Friends of Horsey Seals, said: “It is a sign of a healthy colony.

“It’s down to the fish, at the moment the North Sea is providing enough fish for thousands of seals and this is a nice place for them to come ashore and do their breeding.

“They are very popular with visitors, which is funny because they don’t really do anything, they come ashore and flop down and every few hours the pup nudges the mum for a feed.”

About 50 per cent of the world population of grey seals lives around the British coast and Norfolk is an important breeding area.