Seal Journeys
Written by SRT volunteer Flo Hall.
Different seals have different behaviours and visit patterns, depending on which locations they choose to spend each part of their year. Some seals go to the same site to pup each year, and others have pups at different sites. Seals tend to move to their preferred sites for their moulting season and shift again to be near to their preferred offshore foraging sites in the summer. Only a handful of seals have been identified by SRT at a single location for most of the year, whilst the majority of seals swim considerable distances and have even visited completely different countries!
11 seals, 11 different seal calendars visiting a different combination of sites
A few seals that have been observed in Cornwall have also been sighted on the Isle of Man, north and south Wales, southeast Ireland, north and southwest France, Channel Islands, Belgium, Holland and many other places. One seal even swam roughly 800km over to Biarritz, in France, and another from northeast England to Cornwall, a journey of over 1000km.
Seals have linked Cornwall to multiple locations across the Celtic and North Seas
One example of a seal who has travelled a considerable distance is Trunk. SRT first met Trunk in October 2003, as a fully grown adult. As this lovely seal was frequently in a harbour, she was being fed by fishers and members of the public from tripper boats. This caused Trunk to become food obsessed, and she started spending a lot of time in the harbour, where she could get an easy source of fish. Harbours aren’t ideal places for seals as they have multiple risks including propellor cuts, diesel poisoning, constant disturbance from the public and getting caught up in sharp angling hooks. Trunk was lucky to not be in the harbour during an oil spill in 2009 that could have been fatal, however she has repeatedly suffered from angling hooks, being hooked 4 times in one season and even getting one embedded close to her right eye. When Trunk showed up at a rarely used pupping site during 2019, SRT was overjoyed to see her with a whitecoat pup. She has been sighted pregnant on multiple other occasions after 2019 too. In 2024, Trunk also began hauling out on the busy harbour beach, where she is exposed to constant disturbance from the endless human activity at her chosen resting site. During 2026, SRT had a huge shock when we discovered that Trunk, who is now at least 30 years of age, had suddenly appeared in Guernsey. She then reappeared in Cornwall on social media, but on the wrong coast, yet the next day she returned to her favourite harbour after an impressive 650km swim to the Channel Islands and back!
Photos of Trunk (including her with the fish hook embedded near her eye)
Another seal who makes unique journeys is Lucky bunting, who SRT recorded badly entangled in fishing net. In 2016, BDMLR and SRT took the rare opportunity to cut her free from the trawl net whilst there weren’t many seals on the beach. She is now quite the celebrity after this very successful rescue. Since then, Lucky bunting has swum back and forth between West Cornwall, Pentire and Camel. She is constantly switching between these three preferred sites, the furthest two having only 40km between them. SRT has enjoyed seeing Lucky bunting with four different pups from 2020 onwards. She still bears the permanent scarring from her serious entanglement wound, despite thriving since her epic rescue. SRT hope to continue identifying her throughout her lifetime.
Photos of Lucky bunting (Clockwise from top left: 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024)
If you would like to learn more about Trunk please click here to read her story »
