Strangford Seals Wild on Water

We're in search of some of the 300 seals

who have made this lough their home.

We're heading for Cloughy Rocks, just south of Strangford.

But first there's time for a short stop at an unusual local attraction.

Jen, there's such a lot of fast-running water here.

What is this?

This is a unique area in Strangford Lough called the Routen Wheel,

and it's basically all the water flowing in from the sea

at high tide going against all the ridges of rock

underneath the surface.

So you can see lots of little whirlpools,

and they all merge together in a big bubbling cauldron.

So it can be quite violent at times,

and you wouldn't want to get caught in it without an engine.

-You'd need a good escape route.

-Yeah.

-And do all the local sailors know to avoid this area?

-They do, yes.

My dad always told me when I was younger,

"Stay away from the Routen Wheel."

Jen, so many seals, the length of the lough.

-Who are we looking at here?

-Well, this is Cloughy Rocks.

This is one of the best places to come and see the seals.

And we've got a couple of greys just floating around.

The tide's starting to come up again,

so they're starting to head back off to sea.

What's the difference, because I know

-there are two different types of seal here?

-Yep.

We have the grey seal and the common seal in Strangford Lough.

There's more common seals because they like the shallow inlets,

whereas the grey seals like the more exposed coastline,

and you can tell the difference quite easily once you get your eye in.

The grey seal has got a really long, Roman nose,

and they're absolutely huge animals,

whereas the common seal has a little squashed puppy dog face.

-Yeah? Is there competition, then, between the two types of seal?

-Yeah.

All the animals here in the lough compete for fish,

-quite a lot of them...

-They're fishing now.

-Yeah.

Quite a lot of them rely on fish as their only source of food,

so because the greys are bigger they often intimidate the commons,

but they seem to be living in harmony at the minute.

But we're keeping an eye on the numbers.

The common seals are breeding at the minute.

They're summer breeders, so if you see a little group of commons

you'll often see the pups dotted in amongst the adults.

And then whenever the tide comes back up, like now,

the adult seals go out to sea to catch fish,

and then they'll come back periodically

to feed the pups the sticky milk that they have.

-Are they good mums and dads?

-They're...

Well, the dads aren't so good, I must admit!

But the mums definitely tend very well to their young,

and they'll wean them for a few weeks

and then they'll start eating their own fish.

So the commons are quite independent.

But the greys are born with the furry coat in the winter,

to keep them warm, so it takes them a little bit longer to be weaned.

They're having a lot of fun out there, big splashes behind me.

And so curious, following us.

And I heard calls, too, earlier. They make a very strange noise.

Yeah, especially the greys.

They sound a bit like a cow mooing in the distance.

But the greys are particularly more loud than the commons would be.

Yeah. They are great entertainment,

and we've got the luxury of seeing it from a boat today,

but the road's just over there, anyone can come and see this.

Yeah, definitely.

Because the rocks here are so close to the road,

-you can simply just park you car.

-Big splash!

-Yeah.

He's making a scene.

You can just park your car in one of the lay-bys or the car parks,

get your binoculars out, and you can listen and look at them.

Do they occasionally leave the lough?

Yes, we did a project a few years ago

where we tagged a couple of the seals, and we found out

that a few of the rogues go down to Dublin for the day,

or some of them go over to Scotland.

So although we have a sort of steady number here,

we don't know if it's exactly the same seals.

But as long as we keep the general numbers up we're OK.

-Spot of shopping and a pint, maybe?

-Yep!

-THEY LAUGH

-Who could blame them?