Irish Seals

IRISH SEALS

THREE COMMON MISCONSEPTIONS ABOUT SEALS
	Let's get a few things out of the way for starters. In Ireland sea lions are found in zoos! The members of the order Pinnipeada found in Irish waters are seals, having no external ears and are not able to bring their hind legs in under them like the sea lions.
Secondly Pinnipeds are not fish, they are carnivorous mammals that have adapted to life in water, but still spend a great deal of their life on land. Like mammals they give birth to live young that feed on milk, they are covered in hair and breathe air They have four limbs with five nails on the fingers of each, which are webbed and a small tail. Thirdly seals don't bark like sea lions. Some are quite vocal, but the sounds are ghostly wails and argumentative roaring sounds. There are two species of seal commonly found in Irish waters, the smaller Common Seal (Phoca vitulina) and the large Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus).

TAXONOMY
Order	Pinnipedia	33 species including the Walrus, Fur seals and Sea lion
Superfamily	Phocidea	Have no external ears Their hind flippers can't be brought in under the body They use the hind flippers to swim
Family	Phocidae	-
Subfamily	Phocinae (Northern seals)	True seals
Tribe	Phocini(White Coated Seals)	Includes the common and grey seals

SEALS AND MAN IN FACT AND LEDGEND

There seems to be a curious love hate relationship, especially within the fishing community, between man and seal. One legend tells how there was no room for all the people in Noah's Ark and some of them turned into seals to escape from drowning. In some areas it is thought that they are the drowned mariners while many stories relate how people turned into seals and seals into people. When you hear the legends of how seals changed into human form and came ashore where they fell in love with a local, especially man, and after a time how both went back and lived in the sea as seals, it is hard not to associate seals with mermaids and mermen.

Seals are also associated in stories (how true or not I will leave to you) of saving drowning people especially children who fell in the water. In these stories the seals mostly support the person at the surface till help arrived.

This could possibly be a natural instinct as some aquatic mammals (especially whales) will support their own young at the surface after they are born. In this way they allow their young to get their first breaths rather than drowning at birth.

If the legends are to be believed seals can talk and grieve for the deaths of their loved ones like humans. They have in legend often gathered outside the shed where the body of a slain loved one was stashed, till some man could use the skin to make a waistcoat. The oils from the body were used as a cure for rheumatism and to soften sails.

It must be admitted that seals posses many of the characteristics that man likes in mammals, especially those big, round, sad eyes which are forward looking and in some areas seem to live in loose relationships or family groups like man. Though I now suspect that this depends on the type of coastline, the availability of food and the number of seals in the area and that their relationships to one another may differ depending on where they live. Because of their habits and characteristics man must to some extent relate to them, while on the other hand they are easy to blame for diminishing fish stocks and can do a good deal of damage especially in salmon fishing areas. Unfortunately seals are opportunist feeders, taking fish from nets etc. and leaving the evidence of their raids in the form of heads and bones. But when everything is considered it is probably the increase in the size of catches worldwide with has caused the decrease in fish stocks.

IRISH SEAL FACT SHEET	Common Seal (Phoca vitulina)		Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus)
	Other Names: Harbour Seal - Spotted seal Irish: Ron beag		Other Names: Atlantic seal Irish: Ron glas
	bull	cow	bull	cow
Length	Up to 195cm	Up to 155cm	Up to 330cm	Up to 250cm
Weight	Up to 130 kg	Up to 130kg	Up to 315kg	Up to 180kg
Face	Concave line from forehead to nose with "V" shaped nostrils		Straight line from the forehead to the nose and nearly parallel nostrils	Convex or roman nose and nearly parallel nostrils

Colour	Dark grey through various shades of brown to silver with darker spots often forming patches		Nearly black through various shades of brown and grey to off white under-parts with largish dark spots or blotches
	The coats of both species are sleek when wet, when dry they are bristley and lighten quite considerably in colour
Food	Fish and crustaceans		Mainly fish but will take sea birds when hungry
World range
World Population	I could not find this information		50,000-70,000 with more than 5,000 in North America
Life span	26 years	32 years	30 years	46 years
Pup deaths	Seals have a very high death rate in the first year, those that do not learn to feed and from disease.
Breeding	Mating July-early August(probably at sea) Pupping early summer on sandbanks where the seals habitually haul out		Mating about four weeks after pupping Late autumn on rocky islands or cliffs above the high water mark
Sexual mature	About 5 years		6 years	4 or 5 years
Pregnancy	Both species females are impregnated by the bulls and store the egg for a period of months before the true pregnancy starts and usually have 1 pup each year.
Pups	Moult white coat in womb and are born with adult coat(pelage)		Born with white juvenile fur(in lanugo) and moult to adult coat at 3 to 5 weeks old
Weight at birth	About 6kg		About 14kg
Birth	Pups are born on land (some times in water) and can swim from birth. Deserted by mother after about 4 weeks.		Feed the pups on land for about 4 weeks after which the cow leaves and the young moult and take to the water learning to feed for themselves.
Moults	August	August - September	About March	About February
Enemies	Man, (Polar Bears, Killer whales and sharks where they are found)
Habitat	Prefers sandier coastline with calmer water		Seems to prefer rockier coast with Island(s) or cliffs but can be found on sandbanks mixed with common seals

SEAL TALES

Both species of seal are generally quiet animals, harmless to man. In water they can be quite inquisitive and when the come to realise there is no danger, even playful. There is a case of two young Grey Seals in the waters around Lambay Island off the coast of Fingal, Ireland, where a scuba diving club go to practice who became nearly over friendly. The divers originally noticing one of the seals was quite friendly brought out fish to feed it. A pal came along and soon both were taking fish from the diver's hands, swimming with them and nibbling and pulling at flippers. The main trouble turned out to be that the tutors were afraid the seals would pull an airline of one of the trainee divers, who would then panic. Young seals when in care (especially grey) become quite friendly with people and some can show an "evil" sense of humour. One young cow I took care of learned how to spray people with water using her flippers. She would circle the pool if there were a number of people around it, choose her victim and sit up in the water in front of them. She would then bring her flippers together at the surface sending a jet of water over the poor unsuspecting victim, who seconds before thought they were forming a relationship with a seal.

DO NOT TRY THIS WITH A SEAL IN THE WILD, YOU WILL GET BITTEN

A whited coated bull pup that arrived at the sanctuary first started biting at shoes. Then he discovered trouser legs. He seemed quite able to distinguish between the cloth and the flesh inside it and to catch just the trousers. He would then happily pull you along by the leg of the trousers; the only trouble was if you were not careful you would end up in the pool with him.

Another young seal I took care of, came in so bad with a lung infection that when the vet examined it his comment was "If its alive in the morning, it has a chance." The seal was alive the next morning and slowly recovered. When it was strong enough it used follow me along morning and night to and from a temporary pool outside the kitchen window. Every time the seal passed the kitchen door it disappeared in to my misses, checked she was there (perhaps said hello, I never found out what went on during this detour), then finished its journey. Yet another young seal I minded was an escape artist and was found in the house more times than I can count. Its favourite place was to crawl up on a sofa and survey the rest of the sanctuary's residents through a patio door.

Loughshinny, a small fishing village just up the coast, have their own pet seal Sammy. He accompanies the lobstermen when they go out to pull their pots and comes up on the slip for his fish, hand fed of course. This is OK for the people and dogs of Loughshinney that know him, where I fear trouble may start is with some child that is visiting and tries treating the seal like the family pooch, throwing their arms around Sammy's neck to hug and cuddle him. Sammy is quite at liberty- disappearing for long periods and reappearing in Loughshinny as the humour takes him.

WARNING

The point of these stories is that seals are generally harmless, even friendly towards man, but even some of the seals in these stories have bitten me when they first arrive and were scared. If you come across a seal pup or a seal hauled out, don't try to hold on to it or corner it. With a seal pup don't go too close as they can attack when scared. If frightened it will first try to escape back to the sea and if it can't then it will protect itself and bite.

Remember!

If a seal bites you don't blame the seal, you are the one at fault.