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A rare specimen of the grey seal, native to the North Atlantic and the Arctic Pole, has been spotted in recent weeks at various points along the Andalusian coast. On 18 February it was spotted in Doñana, Huelva and the following day in the bay of Cadiz.
Subsequently, on 7 March, it was detected between Alhucemas, Melilla and the Chafarinas Islands. Last Tuesday it was found on the Estepona beach of El Saladillo and on Wednesday off El Peñoncillo beach in Torrox. By Thursday the animal had made it to Motril, in Granada province.
The animal, an adult specimen, "does not appear to be ill," explained the Aula del Mar biologist José Luis Mons, who travelled to Estepona to see the seal. "It could be tired, although it might have ingested something and is having trouble digesting its food, which is why it has come to the shore to rest," said the expert, who has asked residents to stay away from the animal and to notify the local police or the Guardia Civil if they see it.
In Estepona, Mons was able to touch the animal before it reentered the water. In Torrox, the operational services, together with operators of the Don Animal rescue service in the Axarquia, approached it and once again the seal went back into the sea.
Mons, who says that this is the first time that a specimen of this species has been found in the Mediterranean, has different theories as to how the seal has reached Spain: "It could be for various reasons, on the one hand it could have got lost swimming with the currents, or even in a storm it could have ended up on the deck of a ship and then fallen back into the sea.” He added that it “has no reason to suffer from the higher water temperature; if it can feed, it will survive.”
"It's the same seal from Estepona for sure, because it had a white spot in its left eye. It can’t be very sick as it has moved quickly in a short space of time," he added. According to the expert, the only record of a seal in Malaga’s waters occurred almost a decade ago, in October 2012, when several young specimens of the hooded seal species were identified off the coast of Malaga city. One of them, a pup, found its way into the mouth of the Guadalmedina river, where it was rescued by specialists from the Aula del Mar.
"The endemic Mediterranean monk seal has been almost extinct for more than three decades, when 'Peluso' was last sighted in the Chafarinas Islands. This is due to human pressure on the coasts and mass hunting, although there are reports of sightings in the northern part of Algeria, but there are very few people or researchers there," says Mons.
For the environmental group Ecologistas en Acción-Sierra Bermeja, which has also been following the seal, it "has been going from beach to beach for a month, living the life of a seal, a little far from its usual habitat. It is what is called a wanderer, an individual that leaves its population for whatever reason and ends up in places where they are not expected. It's a natural occurrence. His face is not sad, it is seal-like. There is no reason to think that it is sick or sad.”
The grey seal is a large species, with males weighing up to 400 kilos and females up to 250. Its scientific name is 'halichoerus grypus', and it differs from the common seal in facial features such as the straight profile of its head and the large gap between its nostrils. The grey seal usually inhabits the Atlantic area of northern Europe, the east coast of Canada and the northern United States. Males tend to have dark skin, while females range in colour from silver grey to brown.
"It is important to leave it alone and not to approach it," the regional government’s environment department reminded the public on its social networks after the first sightings on the coasts of Huelva and Cádiz last month. For this reason, the Junta de Andalucía has insisted on asking people to contact the Andalusian emergency phone number, 112, immediately in the event of a sighting of the animal, so that local police or Guardia Civil officers can cordon off the area.
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