Seal Island, The Western Carracks, Cornish Coast nr St Ives, Cornwall
The Atlantic Grey Seal
When you book a boat trip with St Ives Boats (Dolly P) you will have the opportunity to see one of Britains most playful Aquatic Mammals, The Grey Seal.
These seals are the biggest land breeding mammal in the United Kingdom.
Around half the global population of Grey Seals are found around the British coasts.
Grey seal pups weigh only around 14 kg at birth. However, their mother’s high-fat milk allows them to quickly bulk up and develop the blubber which is essential for survival in the cold seawater.
Mother and pup grey seals have a strong bond from birth. Mothers recognise their pup by their call and scent. For the first few weeks of the pup’s life, the mother will feed them around 6 times a day, for up to 10 minutes at a time.
Mother seals remain close to their infant during the first weeks of their life. They rarely feed for themselves during this period and lose up to a quarter of their own weight before the pup is ready to be weaned.
Grey seals’ hands and feet are formed into webbed flippers. They use their strong rear flippers to propel themselves through the water while using their tail to steer. They also have powerful shoulders which enable them to haul themselves onto steep and slippery rocks.
The seals can dive to depths of around 70 metres when searching for food.
Grey seals are able to remain underwater for up to 16 minutes, although they normally tend to resurface after periods of around 5-10 minutes. As a mammal species, the grey seal is unable to breathe underwater, however, it is able to stay underwater for so long by slowing its heart rate to conserve oxygen. Grey seals also have high levels of haemoglobin (red blood pigment which carries oxygen around the body).
Grey seals hunt alone out at sea. Their large eyes allow them to see well in dark murky waters; however, their highly sensitive ears are most important for locating prey. Even blind seals can easily catch prey.
The seals breed from September to December around the British coasts. Females give birth to a single pup on a shore alongside hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of other seals.
Their scientific name (Halichoerus grypus) derives from the Greek for ‘hook-nosed sea pig’. Seems a strange title, we think they are rather lovely.
Seal Island, The Western Carracks, Cornish Coast nr St Ives, Cornwall.
Godrevy Lighthouse in St Ives bay was built in the late 1850s to warn sailors of the presence of Stones Reef, the lighthouse is one of the bays most famous landmarks and is visible for many miles around. It’s possible one of Cornwall’s most famous lighthouses.
Why Godrevy Lighthouse was Built
In late November of 1854 the SS Nile, a steamship bound for St Ives was lost on the reef with around 40 passengers and crew. This wreck, one of many, claiming countless lives on the reef for hundreds of years prompted St Ives Mariner Richard Short to write to the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette and say “Had there been a light on Godrevy Island, which the inhabitants of this town have often applied for, it would no doubt have been the means of warning the ill-fated ship of the dangerous rocks she was approaching.
Many applications have been made from time to time concerning the erection of a light to warn mariners against this dangerous reef, but it has never been attended to, and to that account may be attributed the destruction of hundreds of lives and a mass of property … Scarcely a month passes by in the winter season without some vessel striking on these rocks, and hundreds of poor fellows have perished there in dark dreary nights without one being left to tell the tale.”
Further wreckings occurred and in 1856 a plan was made to begin construction, commencing in late 1857. 15 months and around £7,000 later the light was operating to warn mariners of the danger.
Standing almost 90 feet high, there were adjoining keepers cottages (now demolished) as the lighthouse was manned until 1939. In 1995 solar power was installed and in 2012 the old lighthouse was replaced with a modern steel structure carrying two high power LEDs shining out to sea with an 8-mile range. Now classed as a day mark the old lighthouse is still maintained by Trinity House and stands proudly over our fine bay.
A colony of Atlantic Gray seals and a variety of seabirds are now the islands only inhabitants and are usually seen on our spectacular cruise around the lighthouse.
People come to St Ive’s for a whole host of reasons. Some come for Cornwall in general. Others come just to spend time our little town because the name St Ives is so well known now. We get artists and aficionados with specific interests in particular things. One such point of attraction is, of course, Godrevy Lighthouse.
The lighthouse hasn’t always been on Godvey Island though, there was a time when ships sailing that stretch of the sea was totally unprotected from the wild seas and lethal rocks. Godrevy is a Cornish word meaning “little huts” or little homestead. This still makes sense today as the name is applied to the headland and farm nearby.
Godrevy Island
The area has long been of interest to geologists and naturalists alike. The headland at Godrevy has a bedrock of slate, and to the northwest, you can find the remains of an ancient Sandstone reef. The Island itself is two closely positioned masses of rock which sit 3½ miles out of St. Ives Bay.
In 1622 the naturalist John Ray wrote of the islands “Godreve Island, which is nothing but a rock, upon which, in time of year, build great store of birds.” Gulls, oyster-catchers and pipits make their homes on the island, which is partly covered with grass, as it slopes down to the sea. The Reef mentioned earlier is commonly known as “The Stones”. There’s more to it than that though.
The Nineteenth Clergygyman Francis Kilvert, famed for his diaries of English rural life wrote in 1870″
“The breakers were singing and surging over the rocks of Godrevy called the Nine Maidens. Each of the Stones has its own name: the furthest north-west appears on charts as Heva but its real form, preserved by St. Ives fishermen, seems to be Harva. Then come Deeper, Middle, and Shoaler (shoaler is a 17th-century word meaning ‘shallower’). Nearest to the land is Tide Rock or Quarter-Tide Rock, and the half-mile passage between this and Godrevy island is the Sound or Godrevy Sound. Just outside the island on the west and north-west lies a submerged reef of broken stone over which the waves run and drain. It has several names: Shore Lanner, Maen Launder and even Plenty-to-come-yet, an old term used by fishermen because it was so abundant in lobsters”.
Shipping Increases & The Need for A Light
Shipping and particularly coastal passenger ships and commercial vessels increased in numbers in the first half of the 19th Century. The North Cornish coast benefitted greatly and the village of St Ives flourished as a fishing station.
However, the Stones reef lying jaggedly across the natural path of this traffic claimed many victims. Stories persist that crowds rapidly gathered to those unfortunate vessels to plunder or wreck what was left.
There are many books and films that illustrate the practice. It might seem strange that locals might want to wreck a ship that had foundered on the rocks, but when you consider the potential value of items lost in the sea, that might be recovered by knowing locals and then sold on the black market. Wrecking might have seemed a lucrative opportunity. Only the combined efforts of the customs service and coastguards, even on occasions the local armed Yeomanry, to ward off the wreckers.
Wreck of the Nile Forces Change
On 30 November 1854, the iron screw steamer Nile was wrecked with the loss of all passengers and crew. We’ve mentioned this is our other recent post about Godrevy.
the shipping Charity, Trinity House, decided to provide a lighthouse to aid navigation around the treacherous rocks. The design of consultant engineer, James Walker was accepted and the lighthouse built, first showing its light on 1 March 1859.
The octagonal tower of Godrevy Lighthouse is White, 26 metres high and made from rubble stone bedded in mortar. The tower is adjoined to a keepers’ cottage almost in the centre of the largest of the rocks.
Godrevy Lighthouse, St Ives Bay, Cornwall
A principal keeper and two other keepers received an allowance for food, a suit of clothes annually, and coal, oil and furniture. Two keepers were to be on station at all times. Even though emergencies did happen, when the station was manned alone. Keepers Served two months on and one month off. Boats from St. Ives would ferry the supplies and deal with the reliefs.
In 1934 The lighthouse underwent alterations. A new, Second-Order, fixed catadioptric lens was installed, together with an acetylene burner. The fog bell was also removed, the keepers were withdrawn and the lighthouse made automatic. Perhaps In some ways, this loses some of the romance, but it must have been a very stressful job being isolated on a tiny island for long periods of time.
Godrevy Lighthouse was again modernised in 1995 when it was converted to solar-powered operation. Then in 2012, the light was moved from the lighthouse tower to a new steel structure on the adjacent rock
Today, the lighthouse is monitored and controlled from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.
People come to St Ive’s for a whole host of reasons. Some come for Cornwall in general. Others come just to spend time our little town because the name St Ives is so well known now. We get artists and aficionados with specific interests in particular things. One such point of attraction is, of course, Godrevy Lighthouse.
The lighthouse hasn’t always been on Godvey Island though, there was a time when ships sailing that stretch of the sea was totally unprotected from the wild seas and lethal rocks. Godrevy is a Cornish word meaning “little huts” or little homestead. This still makes sense today as the name is applied to the headland and farm nearby.
Godrevy Island
The area has long been of interest to geologists and naturalists alike. The headland at Godrevy has a bedrock of slate, and to the northwest, you can find the remains of an ancient Sandstone reef. The Island itself is two closely positioned masses of rock which sit 3½ miles out of St. Ives Bay.
In 1622 the naturalist John Ray wrote of the islands “Godreve Island, which is nothing but a rock, upon which, in time of year, build great store of birds.” Gulls, oyster-catchers and pipits make their homes on the island, which is partly covered with grass, as it slopes down to the sea.
The Reef mentioned earlier is commonly known as “The Stones”. There’s more to it than that though.
The Nineteenth Clergygyman Francis Kilvert, famed for his diaries of English rural life wrote in 1870″
“The breakers were singing and surging over the rocks of Godrevy called the Nine Maidens. Each of the Stones has its own name: the furthest north-west appears on charts as Heva but its real form, preserved by St. Ives fishermen, seems to be Harva. Then come Deeper, Middle, and Shoaler (shoaler is a 17th-century word meaning ‘shallower’). Nearest to the land is Tide Rock or Quarter-Tide Rock, and the half-mile passage between this and Godrevy island is the Sound or Godrevy Sound. Just outside the island on the west and north-west lies a submerged reef of broken stone over which the waves run and drain. It has several names: Shore Lanner, Maen Launder and even Plenty-to-come-yet, an old term used by fishermen because it was so abundant in lobsters”.
Shipping Increases & The Need for A Light
Shipping and particularly coastal passenger ships and commercial vessels increased in numbers in the first half of the 19th Century. The North Cornish coast benefitted greatly and the village of St Ives flourished as a fishing station.
However, the Stones reef lying jaggedly across the natural path of this traffic claimed many victims. Stories persist that crowds rapidly gathered to those unfortunate vessels to plunder or wreck what was left.
There are many books and films that illustrate the practice. It might seem strange that locals might want to wreck a ship that had foundered on the rocks, but when you consider the potential value of items lost in the sea, that might be recovered by knowing locals and then sold on the black market. Wrecking might have seemed a lucrative opportunity. Only the combined efforts of the customs service and coastguards, even on occasions the local armed Yeomanry, to ward off the wreckers.
Wreck of the Nile Forces Change
On 30 November 1854, the iron screw steamer Nile was wrecked with the loss of all passengers and crew. We’ve mentioned this is our other recent post about Godrevy.
the shipping Charity, Trinity House, decided to provide a lighthouse to aid navigation around the treacherous rocks. The design of consultant engineer, James Walker was accepted and the lighthouse built, first showing its light on 1 March 1859.
The octagonal tower of Godrevy Lighthouse is White, 26 metres high and made from rubble stone bedded in mortar. The tower is adjoined to a keepers’ cottage almost in the centre of the largest of the rocks.
Godrevy Lighthouse, St Ives Bay, Cornwall
A principal keeper and two other keepers received an allowance for food, a suit of clothes annually, and coal, oil and furniture. Two keepers were to be on station at all times. Even though emergencies did happen, when the station was manned alone. Keepers Served two months on and one month off. Boats from St. Ives would ferry the supplies and deal with the reliefs.
In 1934 The lighthouse underwent alterations. A new, Second-Order, fixed catadioptric lens was installed, together with an acetylene burner. The fog bell was also removed, the keepers were withdrawn and the lighthouse made automatic. Perhaps In some ways, this loses some of the romance, but it must have been a very stressful job being isolated on a tiny island for long periods of time.
Godrevy Lighthouse was again modernised in 1995 when it was converted to solar-powered operation. Then in 2012, the light was moved from the lighthouse tower to a new steel structure on the adjacent rock
Today, the lighthouse is monitored and controlled from Trinity House’s Planning Centre in Harwich, Essex.
See the Lighthouse Up Close!
St Ives Boats offer a fantastic boat trip to the Island. Click here to book your trip today!
During the winter months, we are not running our normal boat trips but as year-round residents in St Ives, we do get involved in many aspects of serving the local community and its many causes.
Something dear to our hearts is the conservation of the local Seal population. The seals that live in and around St Ives Bay are Grey Seals. During the winter months, we do see an increasing amount of seals that are washed up sick or injured.
During the winter months, the seas can be quite rough, and seals, particularly young seals can easily become injured. They can be bashed against the barnacle-covered rocks as well as running the daily gauntlet of avoiding boat propellers.
We often find seals washed up on the beach with facial injuries such as this one who had cuts around her mouth and head.
In the majority of cases, the seals are found and reported in good time and we are able to give them “on beach care and return them to a state of health relatively quickly.
What’s Involved In Seal Rescue?
Photo Credit: @teamfaceplant on Instagram
Where possible we administer some “on beach treatment before transporting the seal off to the local Seal sanctuary, where they receive the care they need to get them fit and seaworthy again.
Some of the young seals become separated from their family group and washed up on the local beaches, without a little human intervention, these underweight pups would die. Once they have been fed sufficiently to bring them to their target weight they are then released back into the wild.
Older seals also sometimes get into trouble too, and ones that have been checked by the local wildlife rescue teams will often bear a marking so that they can be easily identified if found again.
Like humans and domestic animals, Seals can suffer from colds and respiratory issues. Whenever we find an animal suffering like this we make an on-site assessment and take the appropriate action.
Minor cases are treated on the beach and this may involve moving the seal to a more secluded spot for rehabilitation whereas more serious cases will require a stay at the sanctuary.
Want To See The Seals Yourself?
If you’d like to see the grey seals in their natural habitat, around Seal Island, then simply book yourself on one our Seal spotting boat trips. We’ll take you out to Seal Island where you can get a good look at these loveable locals.
