Mousa Island and its SEALS

The island of Mousa is important for its natural wealth, not only by the number of birds that inhabit it, also seals resting on the beaches and feed in its waters.

RSPB members also oversee the preservation of them, often telling individuals present and protect their habitats from the curious who occasionally visited the island. The time in which to observe the distance required is the rearing, which is very important not to stress.

Seal species that are present on the island are two: the Grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) and common seal (Phoca vitulina), whose numbers have been reduced from 400 to 60 in the last 20 years. This has occurred for several reasons, firstly, climate change has caused the decline of fish with which they feed. Not so with gray seals, which has the ability to move away from the coast to fish, which helps maintain a stable number of copies.

In addition, the Orcas are often closer to the island to hunt common seals pups, another reason why they are disappearing and growing the number of gray seals, because the breeding season is in winter time when the orcas do not go through the island.