Diet of the harbour seals Phoca vitulina of Dundrum Bay, north-east Ireland

Abstract

This study has shown that the main constituents of the diet of the harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) of Dundrum Bay, County Down, north-east Ireland, during the past few years (1995–2000) have been small flatfish and gadid fish, with the emphasis shifting from the beginning to the end of the study period from flatfish to gadids, principally whiting and haddock/pollack/saithe. During both 1995 and 1996 the diet of post-weaning pups consisted almost entirely of small gadid fish. The implications of this relatively poor diet, apparently deficient in oily fish, are considered—together with information on fish stocks in the north-west Irish Sea in recent years—in the context of an apparent decline both in the breeding population of harbour seals along the County Down coast and in the play behaviour of juvenile seals.