Overview
- Marine teams have now linked roughly 20 individual grey seals to attacks on common dolphins and harbour porpoises across the British Isles, and they are stepping up monitoring of strandings and sightings.
- Recent cases include a dolphin seen in a seal’s jaws in the Irish Sea in January 2026 and the first confirmed fatal dolphin kill in Wales in late February 2026, with two earlier suspected attacks off Devon.
- Investigators match cases using hallmark “corkscrew” bite wounds on carcasses and by comparing distinctive facial scars on seals to identify repeat attackers.
- Experts say the predation appears confined to a small number of seals for now, though they caution the tactic may be learned over time and slowly become more common.
- Safety concerns have grown for swimmers and rescuers because seal bites can cause severe infections such as “seal finger,” even as attacks on people remain rare around the UK’s roughly 120,000 grey seals.