sic – yes, it’s a loving couple in the image above. The image is taken earlier this year during the mating season of the grey seals on Helgoland, a small island 60 km from the German coast in the middle of the North Sea. The North Sea is a part of the Atlantic ocean, located between the British main Island, Germany, Denmark and Scandinavia.

During the 1970 they were completely exterminated in the whole Deutsche Bucht (German Bight). From the late 1980s they re-conquered a sandbank near Amrum. That sandbank became a bridgehead for repopulating the German Bight again. Recently, I saw a report saying there were more than 12,000 grey seals in the German Bight again.

The grey seals get their babies during winter. It’s also their mating season. While the first wild grey seal was born in winter 1996/97, there were about 100 babies in 2011. 2016 there were already more than 316 and this year more than 426 babies from October 1st until January, 21st (when we left Helgoland this year = 2018).

More of my images can be seen at my own blog.