Seals are a very specialist group of mammals, living exclusively in the marine and foreshore environment. In Devon these are represented by the Phocoidae (true seals), grey seals and common (or harbour) seals. They are carnivorous, and highly adapted to aquatic life. Their limbs have modified into flippers, their bodies are highly streamlined and covered by short coarse hair. As mammals living in a cold environment they are well insulated by a thick layer of blubber. Grey seals come on land to breed around parts of the Devon coast, although this is a more common site in Cornwall. As far as we know there are no breeding common seals this far south and west.

(Halichoerus grypus)

Breeding colonies are mainly found in Cornwall but there is at least one on the Devon coast. Regularly seen from the north and south coasts of Devon, and is recorded by Seaquest observers.

Length: 2 – 3m
Weight: 150 – 320kg
Food: Fish, Squid, Shellfish and Crustaceans
Found: The North Atlantic ocean. A half of the world’s population of Grey Seals lives around the British coast. Found on most coasts but slightly fewer in the south-east.
Population: Unknown
Interesting facts: Its scientific name is half Latin and half Greek and means; little sea pig with a hooked-nose!

(Phoca vitulina)

Occasionally seen around the coast, generally in the south east of the county, though it is not thought to breed here.

Length: 1.2 – 2m
Weight: 45 – 130kg
Food: Fish, Squid, Shellfish and Crustaceans
Found: They are found in waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans, but locally found around northern and eastern Britain in large numbers and occasionally found in other places around the British coast.
Population: up to 500,000 individuals
Interesting facts: Up to 60% of a seal’s body weight can be accounted for by a thick layer of insulating fat, the average human only has 20 – 25% body fat!