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A Short Investigation into the Habits, Abundance, and Species of Seals on the North Cornwall Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

G. A. Steven
G. A. Steven
Affiliation:
Assistant Naturalist at the Plymouth Laboratory.
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Extract

1. In the course of three trips to the herring grounds in the vicinity of St. Ives five seals were sighted. Seven others were also seen at various other times and places in the course of five days spent in that locality.

2. During a single night at sea in Port Isaac Bay eight seals were sighted.

3. It was obvious from the movements of certain of the seals observed on the fishing grounds that they were attracted to the herring nets.

4. Direct evidence that the seals actually remove fish from the nets was not obtained.

5. Damage done to drift nets by seals is negligible.

6. Grey Seals (Halichœrus grypus) are present in considerable numbers, and are probably the commonest seals in Cornish waters.

7. Brown Seals (Phoca vitulina) appear to be few—they may even be rare—around Cornwall.

8. There is at least one seal colony of considerable size in certain caves near Boscastle. This appears to consist of Grey Seals. Probably other such colonies exist on the Cornish coast.

9. Clupeoid remains have been found in two out of the three Grey Seal stomachs which have been examined.

10. Further and more exact knowledge of the habits and relative abundance of Grey and Brown Seals around the Cornish coast is desirable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , May 1934 , pp. 189 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1934

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References

page 489 note * It must here be pointed out that herring drifting takes place mainly during the hours of darkness. The fishing vessels leave harbour in time to reach the fishing grounds at or just before sundown. Opportunity for the clear observation of seals and their activities amongst the boats and by the fishing nets is restricted therefore to the hours of failing daylight when the boats are proceeding to the grounds or while they are returning to harbour after daybreak—if they remain out until that time. After darkness falls, unless in very bright moonlight, a seal can be seen only if it should come within the circle of light cast upon the water by the boat's fishing lamps.

page 490 note * Which was the object of this investigation.

page 491 note * See also p. 494 of this report.

page 490 note † On the return journey a “wide circle” was made to seaward as it was thought that the stormy sea might have caused the seals to forsake the immediate vicinity of the rocks.

page 492 note * There are other “seal holes” in this vicinity which were not visited.

page 493 note * See also p. 494.

page 494 note * On one occasion, many years ago, the writer himself caught sight of a seal rising to the surface of the water with a fish (not a herring) in its mouth.

page 498 note * On Thursday, 17th, a small seal, swimming around the same rocks, was sighted from the train just before it entered St. Ives station. This may have been the same animal.

page 498 note † See also p. 491 of this report.

page 500 note * In plotting positions of the Seals the small changes in position occupied by the nets owing to drift have been ignored.