Today was a very sad day down at Lizard Point. In the last week an unknown grey seal had given birth in the back of a natural sea cave close to the lizard point. The pup had been out of sight of the public until yesterday when it was seen close to the waters edge feeding from its mother. When I went down this morning at about 10.30 the mother was around looking upwards into the cove. All day the mother would haul up the beach get to the top look around for the pup but she never seemed to find it. After many attempts of looking for the pup to feed it, she eventually gave up and kept returning to the water. At around 3.30 myself and an employee at the seal sanctuary were asked to see if the pup was still present in the cove.
After a few minuets of waiting for the mother to dive we crept round the rocks in to the cove only to find that there was no seal pup present. Large piles of kelp and a lot of litter was in plentiful numbers but the young seal pup was no where to be seen. My guess is that spring tides and rough seas must have carried the pup away last night, or that is was caught and buried under large piles of kelp on the beach. Either way, watching the female trying to find its pup was heat breaking.
On a brighter note, here is a shot of a healthy seal pup called Quiche on the North Coast
1/1000 sec f 3.2 @ 300mm
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