More than 3,790 baby seals have been sighted on a stretch of the Norfolk coast – almost twice the count three years ago.
This season 3,796 seals were born – and 1,169 adults have been seen between Waxham and Winterton.
Peter Ansell, chairman of Friends of Horsey Seals, said:
“It is a sign of a healthy colony.
“It’s down to the fish.
“At the moment the North Sea is providing enough fish for thousands of seals, and this is a nice place for them to come ashore and do their breeding.
“They are very popular with visitors, which is funny because they don’t really do anything, they come ashore and flop down and every few hours the pup nudges the mum for a feed.”
Half of the world’s population of grey seals lived around the British Ilses coastline.
The Norfolk coast – with its flat beaches, shallow waters and high dunes – are ideal conditions for breeding.
And there are no natural predators.
During the 1980s a small proportion of seals were born in Blakeney Point in Norfolk but the population has since exploded, rising from 69 to almost 4,000.
Visitors are asked to keep at a distance and keep their dogs on a lead while the pups are ashore in the winter months until about February.
In the early 20th century, the Wildlife Trust estimated there were only 500 seals in and around Britain.
The charity now estimates there are more than 120,000 grey seals in Britain, making up 40 per cent of the world’s population and 95 per cent of the European population.
