The status of the common seal ( Phoca vitulina L.) on the East Anglian coast

• Published in: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
• Main Author: Sergeant, D. E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1951
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; common seal; Phoca vitulina
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0025315400052887; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0025315400052887

A study has been made of the food, population, and some aspects of the ecology of the common seal ( Phoca vitulina L.) along the East Anglian coast. Examination of stomach contents of 194 seals killed in the Wash in 1947 confirms earlier evidence that the species here feeds largely on whelks ( Buccinum undatum ). The food is estimated by weight as 92 % molluscs, 4 % fish and 4 % Crustacea. Young seals for 2–3 months after weaning feed almost exclusively on shrimps ( Crangon vulgaris ). Data derived from six stomachs, together with verbal reports, suggest that seals on the open coast feed more exclusively on fish, chiefly pleuronectids. This agrees with the findings of other workers in Holland and Washington State, U.S.A., that fish are the primary food animals. It is therefore suggested that in the Wash, where suitable breeding sands are common, the seals have become adapted to feeding on a ‘second-class’ food in the absence of dense stocks of fish.