About Seals
Seal species
There are two native seal species in the UK: grey and harbour seals.
We are extremely lucky to routinely see grey seals around the UK coastline, a globally rare seal species only present in the north Atlantic. The UK is home to 34% of the entire world’s population based on pup production. Despite this, there are still fewer grey seals in the UK than red squirrels. (Our proportion of the global population is down from 50% when SRT began in 2000, suggesting seals are thriving better elsewhere in the north Atlantic). 70% of UK seals breed in Scotland (down from 90%). Harbour seals are only found in the northern hemisphere in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. There are three recognised subspecies. They include the western Pacific, western and eastern
Atlantic. Around 30% of the European harbour seals are found in the UK (down from 40% in 2002). Whilst harbour seals have been present in the southwest UK since the Mesolithic, the first successfully weaned harbour seal pup in 25 years was recorded here in 2021. The UK is also visited by multiple out of habitat vagrant seal species, including bearded, harp, hooded and ringed seals as well as the Atlantic walrus.