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Grey seal Halichoerus grypus in the Black
Sea: the first case of long-term survival of an
exotic pinniped
e.v. gladilina
1
, o.a. kovtun
2
, a.a. kondakov
3
, a.m. syomik
4
, k.k. pronin
2
and p.e. gol’din
1
1
Taurida National University, 4, Vernadsky Avenue, Simferopol, Crimea, 95007 Ukraine,
2
I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National
University, 2, Dvoryanskaya Str., Odessa, 65026 Ukraine,
3
Institute of Arid Zones, Southern Scientific Centre of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, 41 Chekhov Avenue, Rostov-on-Don, 344006 Russia,
4
South Scientific Research Institute of Marine Fisheries
and Oceanography, 2 Sverdlova Str., Kerch, Crimea, 98300 Ukraine
A grey seal (Halichoerus grypus), representative of the North Atlantic species, has been recorded in the north-east Black Sea.
It is the first documented case of successful long-term survival of an exotic pinniped. We have been receiving data about
regular sightings of the seal identified as the observed individual since 2001. It is a 160–170 cm long adult female. The
seal used an underwater cave as a shelter. The most likely way of introduction of the grey seal to the Black Sea is escape
from captivity. According to available data (body size and moulting seasonality), we tentatively identify it as a representative
of the Baltic subspecies. The biotope requirements of the grey seal and monk seal are similar: both species use coastal karst
caves and grottos. In addition, the seal’s presence in this region is a marker of the lack of anthropogenic disturbance. Thus, the
survival of a seal in this region indicates the possibility of successful re-colonization of the Black Sea by monk seals.
Keywords: pinnipeds, grey seal, monk seal, exotic species, cave habitat, artisanal fisheries
Submitted 2 December 2012; accepted 8 January 2013
INTRODUCTION
The grey seal (Halichoerus grypus Fabricius, 1791) inhabits
Atlantic boreal waters. Three populations are identified:
north-west and north-east Atlantic populations are con-
sidered to represent the Atlantic subspecies H. g. grypus, and
the Baltic population is made up by the genetically isolated
Baltic subspecies H. g. macrorhynchus (Vishnevskaya et al.,
1990; Rice, 1998). Seals from the north-west Atlantic and
Baltic populations are considered to be ice-breeding, and the
north-east Atlantic population, land-breeding (Krushinskaya
& Lisitsyna, 1983). Body size of grey seals shows geographical
variation. The largest seals were recorded in the north-west
Atlantic: asymptotic length is 242 cm for males and 201 cm
for females (Murie & Lavigne, 1992). In the north-east
Atlantic, mature males are 195–260 cm long, and females
are 165– 210 cm long (Geptner et al.,1976; Beck et al.,
2003). Body size of animals from the Baltic Sea is much
smaller: at the age of 12– 34 years old, males are 182 –
202 cm long and females are 166– 176 cm long
(Lundstedt-Enkel et al.,2008). No data are available on grey
seal introductions in other regions.
Grey seals have been never recorded in the Black Sea. The
only extant aboriginal pinniped in the Black Sea, the
Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus Hermann,
1779, inhabited the region up to the end of the 20th
Century; now it is extinct in the Black Sea.
The aim of this work is description of the case of long-term
survival of a grey seal introduced into the Black Sea with its
ecological characteristics and the discussion of present-day
pinniped occurrence and survival in the Black Sea.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data collection
Search surveys and coastal observations at the coast of Crimea
were conducted by the authors occasionally in 2001 – 2011,
from February to November. In summer 2011, in the course
of ‘Ukrainian Marine Caves 2011’ expedition, submerged
and semi-submerged caves of the south Kerch Peninsula
were examined. The cave where the seal was observed was
assigned number PK-395 for the Ukrainian Caves Cadaster.
The observations were recorded with photographs and
video. Underwater video records in caves were made using a
3CCD video camera (Sony TRV900) with a blimp and self-
power lighting. In addition, we collected data about the seal
identified as the observed one from the coast of eastern
Crimea and the Kerch Strait: using oral communications
and photographs by researchers from the South Scientific
Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography,
Opuk and Karadag natural reserves, Taurida National
University, other research institutions, by local residents,
and tourists. Data on external appearance and behaviour of
the seal and, when available, on the weather conditions,
were recorded. Photographs taken in various localities were
analysed. The criteria for identifying the observed animal as
Corresponding author:
E.V. Gladilina
Email: el.gladilina@gmail.com
1
Marine Biodiversity Records, page 1 of 6. #Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2013
doi:10.1017/S1755267213000018; Vol. 6; e33; 2013 Published online
a grey seal were: large body size; greyish spotted coloration;
long ‘Danish dog-like’ snout; absence of observable auricles;
and difference from eared seals familiar to the respondents.
Species and individual identification
Acceptable quality photographs and snapshots showing lateral
views of the seal’s head were used for species and individual
identification. Each individual seal has a unique black and
white pelage pattern with the spots at the head and neck,
especially distinct in adult females (Hiby et al.,2007). We
compared two series of images taken in 2009 (photographs
by Marina Dovgopolaya) and in 2011 (snapshots from a
video by Oleg Kovtun).
RESULTS
Time frames
The first anecdotal records of an animal similar to a grey seal
near the Crimean coast are dated as early as 1982– 1983: a seal
of spotted coloration was seen on ice in the Bulganak Bay, the
Sea of Azov. Then a seal was recorded in 1995 – 2000 in the
Kerch Strait (in the Taman Gulf and near Tuzla Island).
The reports were controversial: although some respondents
reported having seen ‘a fur seal’, the descriptions (‘long hind
limbs and short forelimbs’ and ‘head without observable auri-
cles’) suggested a phocid seal. Since at least 2001 (or even
2000) the animal identified as a grey seal has been regularly
seen near the south coast of the Kerch Peninsula at the
Black Sea, between the capes of Chauda and Takyl
(Figure 1). A few anecdotal reports of two (‘old and young’)
animals in 2001, 2005 and 2011 were validated and proven
to be erroneous; at present we have no testimony of any two
seals being observed at the same time.
During 11 years of observation, the seal has been observed in
February and from April to August (Table 1). In terms of sea-
sonal dynamics, more than 33% random observations fell in
May; in May 2010 and 2011, there were regular observations
as well. Throughout all those years the seal has never been
seen within the periods of 10– 20 July or 29 July–24 August.
Results of field studies
During our field studies we have seen one animal identified as
a sexually mature, although not old, female grey seal. It has a
long snout, shorter and more gracile than in males, without
fleshy bulge. The dorsal side is dark-grey, and the ventral
one, light-grey, with numerous white blotches of various
size and shape at the belly, sides and neck. This type of
female coloration is usual for grey seal colonies in Scotland
and at the Baltic coasts; it is rarely seen in the Barents Sea colo-
nies (Geptner et al.,1976; Anderson, 1988). Body length of the
seal living near the Crimean coast is estimated as 160 –170 cm.
The analysis of pelage pattern on the head from photo-
graphs taken in 2009 and from above-water and underwater
video in 2011 demonstrates that this is one and the same indi-
vidual (Figure 2). This can be seen from the shape and
location of a large white patch near the right ear and three
small spots behind the mouth on the right side of the head.
The main elements of the pattern used for individual identifi-
cation are marked with red boxes on the photographs. Bright
pelage indicates recent moulting. The coloration is black and
white, without the reddish hue that appears in northern grey
seals in the next few months after moulting.
The most successful observations from a close distance
were made in July 2011.
Fig. 1. Geographical range of sightings of the grey seal Halichoerus grypus at the Black Sea coast (marked by shaded area).
2 e.v. gladilina et al.
Behaviour
Most frequently the seal was observed while feeding. It was
repeatedly seen foraging in the waters near the coast of the
Kerch Peninsula, hunting so-iuy mullet Liza haematocheilus.
These observations mostly fall in May, the season of migration
of so-iuy. Depredation from fishing gears was recorded: the
seal took flathead grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) and so-iuy
mullet (Liza haematocheilus). The seal often visited a facility
for artisanal fisheries near Yakovenkovo. When fishermen
lifted the net, the seal took the fish dropping out of the net.
Sometimes it would enter the area encircled by the net; the
fishermen let the seal go out.
The seal was seen in an underwater cave on 26 July 2011
(E.G., personal observations). It was lying on a stone with its
head under water (Figure 3), sometimes lifting its head up
and watching the researchers. After 30 minutes, it dived into
an underwater passage. During the next observation in the
cave on 27 and 28 July 2011 (Kovtun, 2011), the operator
with the camera met the seal in an underwater tunnel.
Moving past the operator, the seal bit the objective of the
camera and hit the camera with its foreflipper. Next day the
seal was found lying on the above-water stone in the remote
part of the east cave. As before, the seal watched the diver for
a long time, and then it went to the water. After this record,
the cave observations were stopped to avoid further disturb-
ance. Thus, the seal did not tend to leave the cave after
meeting a human, but stayed inside the cave.
Shelter
The examined cave is probably the shelter regularly used by
the seal (Figure 4). There are traces of the seal’s activity:
faeces, prey remains and specific smell. We suppose it to be
the seal’s haul-out for the moulting period. The cave is a
complex of passages produced by abrasion. Total length of
the cave is 111.7 m; area is 429.2 m
2
; volume is 1269.8 m
3
.
The cave has two entrances. Extensions and niches up to
1.5 m high are seen in underwater portions. The cave floor
is mostly submerged, it lifts gradually from the entrance to ter-
minations; height gradient is about 3 m. Depth is 2 m at the
west entrance and 1.5 m at the east entrance. Maximum
height of the cave is 11 m at the west entrance; minimum
height is 1 m in the small passage. Maximum breadth,
8.5 m, is at the west entrance. The cave floor is covered by
boulders and pebbles. The seal’s haul-out is located at the
pebble beach in the east portion of the cave.
DISCUSSION
Origin
The nearest to the Black Sea natural habitats of grey seals are
the Baltic Sea and the coasts of France, Great Britain and
Ireland; vagrant individuals were recorded in the waters of
Portugal (Rice, 1998). West European seals prefer remote
coastlands at rocky archipelagos, uninhabited islands, isolated
beaches and underwater caves (Lockley, 1966; Kiely & Myers,
1998); at the Faroe Islands, grey seals moult and even breed in
caves (Mikkelsen, 2007). A similar landscape is typical of the
grey seal’s habitat at the Black Sea.
The most probable way of a grey seal’s penetration into the
Black Sea is escape from captivity. Grey seals from the Barents
and Baltic Seas have been held in oceanaria and zoos of Russia;
Table 1. Seal records near the southern coast of the Kerch Peninsula in 2001 – 2011 (the number of records is indicated; R, regularly).
Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Month
February – 1 – – – – – – – – – 1
April – – – 2 – – – – – – – 2
May 35––5–––1 R R14+,R
June – 1 3 – – – – – 1 5, R 10 +,R
July 1 – – 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 13
August 1 – – – 1 – – – – – – 2
Total 5 7 3 3 9 1 1 1 3 1 +,R 8+,R
Fig. 2. Photographs of the grey seal Halichoerus grypus at the Black Sea coast: (A) photograph by M. Dovgopolaya, 2009; (B) photograph by O. Kovtun, 2011.
Elements of pelage patterns are compared.
grey seal in the black sea 3
a young male grey seal was transported in April 1988 from the
Barents Sea to an oceanarium at the Black Sea (Mishin &
Matishov, 2000).
Atlantic grey seals, including animals from the Barents Sea,
are larger than the Baltic seals. So the fully-grown female
about 170 cm long is more likely a Baltic grey seal. Living in
an alien environment and malnutrition could cause stress
and decline in growth rate. However, no data support
inadequate nutrition or emaciation of the studied individual.
Pelage coloration in late July 2011 indicated a recent moulting.
Moulting seasonality differs for Atlantic and Baltic grey seals.
Moulting occurs from January to March in Britain, from
March to May in the Barents Sea and from May to early
July in the Baltic Sea (Kondakov, 1999; McConnell et al.,
1999; Sjoberg et al.,1999). Individual activity is low during
the moulting. In captivity, duration of individual moulting
extends and its time significantly varies. According to our
data, records of the seal at sea are either rare or missing start-
ing with the end of June. This period falls within the moulting
season known for Baltic grey seals.
Lifestyle and behaviour
No uniform migration pattern is characteristic for grey seals.
Some individuals can migrate 100 km or even more
(McConnell et al.,1999; Vincent et al.,2005). In the Black
Fig. 3. The grey seal Halichoerus grypus in the underwater cave: (A) lying on a stone (photograph by D. Smirnov); (B) under water (photograph by O. Kovtun).
Fig. 4. Scheme of the cave ‘Tyuleniy’ (presumed haul-out is marked by the asterisk).
4 e.v. gladilina et al.
Sea we have data of seal records within the 80-km long coastal
stretch (Figure 1).
The coast of Kerch Peninsula is remarkable for its small
population, lack of human activity, and almost inaccessible
areas with cliffs and underwater caves. These conditions are
favourable as a seal habitat—that was probably the main
reason why the seal chose this area. Conflicts with fisheries
affect grey seals in some regions due to depredation and net
damage by seals (Ko
¨nigson et al.,2009). The seal living in
the Black Sea interacts with fishing gears, too. However, a
single animal cannot cause much damage to fisheries, so fish-
ermen are tolerant of it.
In the Baltic Sea, the surface water temperature varies
within +2–88Sduring cold season and +10–178Sin
summer. The north-eastern Black Sea is much warmer: in
summer, water in the coastal area warms up at least to
+23–258S. Many fishes, e.g. mullets and turbot, migrate to
depths with cooler water, and it can account for the rare
summer seal records at sea. During the periods of water
cooling the seal is more frequently recorded in June, like in
2011, when the June water temperature was below +17 –
188S. Also June/July is the probable moulting season; hence,
the summer decline in activity is in line with the moulting
period. Attractive for a cool-loving grey seal is the shelter
cave with a cool-water pool, which is indirectly connected to
the sea.
Baltic grey seals mainly haul out on ice during the breeding
season, although in warm winters they breed and moult
ashore (Harding et al.,2007). On the contrary, Atlantic seals
tend to moult at coastal haul-outs only. So the animal prefer-
ring open sea and ice in natural habitats (if it is a Baltic seal)
has adapted to the Black Sea coast and changed its ecological
strategy, while the edge of stable winter ice in the Sea of Azov
is just 20 – 30 km from its present habitat. However, the seal
remains within the limits of the species ecology: its lifestyle
fits in with what we know about that of north-east Atlantic
seals near the Faroese, British and French coasts.
Grey seal and monk seal
The Mediterranean monk seal is now extinct in the Black Sea;
its latest records in the 1990s came from the southern and
south-western coasts (O
¨ztu¨rk, 1996;Spasov&Avramov,
2011). In Crimea, monk seals were recorded near the south
Crimean coast in the early 20th Century (Zernov, 1913;
Kleinenberg, 1956). Monk seals probably were extinct in
Crimea by the 1930s (Puzanov, 1929) and in the north-western
Black Sea by the 1950s (Krotov, 1952;Sal’nikov,1959).
Subsequently pinnipeds were numerously recorded in the
northern Black Sea: they escaped from local oceanaria
(Birkun, 2006), where seals have been held since the 1970s;
yet individual survivals in nature are supposed to be short-
term. Especially important is the report by Evgeny
Kondaurov who observed a seal near the cape of Chauda in
1974 (Krasnaya Kniga RSFSR, 1983). It is not known if it
was an extralimital record of a monk seal or the first record
of a seal that had escaped from captivity.
In recent years, scientific and popular publications
reported sightings of monk seals in the north-east Black Sea.
In light of our data, all these records should be referred to
the grey seal, the records of monk seals being erroneous.
The source of confusion is the ecological similarity: tendency
to uninhabited areas and using underwater caves as shelters. It
indicates that under certain conditions (e.g. presence of cool-
water habitats or currents) dispersing or introduced grey seals
can mimic the monk seal in subtropical regions. So far this has
not been evident, because the present-day natural ranges of
these species do not overlap; however, the similarity of their
ecology has revealed itself with the introduction of the grey
seal into the Black Sea.
For the past 50 years distribution and abundance of monk
seals in the eastern Mediterranean declined to critically small
values by the 2000s (Gu¨c¸lu¨soy et al.,2004). However, in recent
years monk seals have been showing a tendency toward dis-
persal: previously unknown colonies have been found (Gu¨c¸u¨
et al.,2004); sightings in the waters of Croatia and Israel
have been reported (Gomerc
ˇic
´et al.,2011; Scheinin et al.,
2011). In the past, long-distance migrations were recorded
in the Black Sea (Sal’nikov, 1959; Dobrovolov & Yoneva,
1996). Individual movements in the Aegean Sea, at the north-
eastern edge of the present-day range, can amount to 280 km
within three months and 40 km per day (Adamantopoulou
et al.,2011). In addition, some Aegean monk seals habituate
to humans (Adamantopoulou et al.,2011). Given these
trends and the presence of habitats suitable for monk seals
(Bychkov, 1976), we can expect reappearance of monk seals
in the Black Sea, the case of successful survival of the grey
seal at the Black Sea coast demonstrating the possibility of
re-colonization of this region by monk seals.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank Tatyana Vasilchenko, Igor Barmin, Dmitry
Smirnov, Dmitry Startsev and Lena Godlevskaya for their help
in field research; Vladimir Pletyuk, Igor Sikorsky and Vera
Gasymova for their help in organization of studies; Valentin
Kassin, Marina Dovgopolaya, Vasily Mazepa, Viktor
Gromenko, Ekaterina Lukyanenko, Nikolay Kononov,
Valentina Kobechinskaya, Dmitry Georgiev, Aleksandr
Fedetsov, Maxim Svolynsky, Evgeny Suslov, Vladimir Dikiy,
Sergey Ivanov, Lena Godlevskaya, Roman Zimnukhov,
Dmitry Kalentsov, Vitaly Giragosov, Valentin Serbin, Evgeny
Gol’din, Andrey Tsemenko, Tatyana Vishnevskaya and
Viacheslav Bychkov for interviews and discussions; and two
anonymous referees for comments on the earlier draft of the
manuscript. Special thanks to Marina Kosareva for her inspi-
ration and support at all steps of our study.
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Correspondence should be addressed to:
E.V. Gladilina
Taurida National University
4, Vernadsky Avenue, Simferopol, Crimea, 95007 Ukraine
email: el.gladilina@gmail.com
6 e.v. gladilina et al.
