Abstract
THE leading article in Nature on “The Grey Seal and British Fisheries”1, by relying on Rae's2 appendix, gives a wrong impression of our knowledge of the status of the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) in British waters both now and in the past. There has in fact at no time been adequate information on which to base a reliable estimate of the total population of this species. Added to this ignorance there has been, and still remains, much confusion with the common seal (Phoca vitulina), and the recent work of several zoologists on the biology of the grey seal has resulted in the discovery of previously unknown breeding groups which are not necessarily new colonies. An increase in knowledge of a species does not mean that there has been an increase in its numbers.
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References
Nature, 188, 773 (1960).
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Darling, F. F., A Naturalist an Rona (Oxford Univ. Press, 1939).
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Davies, J. L., Proc. Zool. Soc., Lond., 119, 673 (1949).
Hewer, H. R., Nature, 187, 959 (1960).
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FITTER, R. Status of the Grey Seal. Nature 189, 506 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/189506a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/189506a0
