Grey seals flourish again in British coastal waters

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Grey seals at Horsey Gap in Norfolk
Grey seals at Horsey Gap in Norfolk
(Image credit: Umdash9/Alamy Stock Photo)

A hundred years after hunting by fishermen drove their numbers down to as low as 500, grey seals are once again flourishing in British coastal waters. In a single colony on the Norfolk coast, nearly 4,000 pups were born in this winter’s breeding season, according to local conservationists – more than double the number in the winter of 2019-2020, when the last count was done on the five-mile stretch between Waxham and Winterton, and up from about 100 two decades ago. In total in the UK, there are believed to be about 120,000 grey seals – which amounts to about 40% of the global population.

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