Grey seals are the largest wild animals in the Baltic Sea. A big male grey seal can weigh over 200 kilograms and reach nearly two and a half metres long. Females are smaller. On land they move in a shuffling, rolling way — but in the water they are fast, graceful swimmers that can hold their breath for up to 30 minutes.
Seals eat fish — lots of fish. A grey seal can eat several kilograms of fish every day, diving deep to chase herring, sprat, cod and flatfish. Their sensitive whiskers help them feel the tiny water movements made by swimming fish, even in dark or murky water.
For many years, grey seals in the Baltic were in trouble because of pollution and hunting. Today they are protected and their numbers are growing. Seeing a grey seal sunbathing on a rock near the Latvian coast has become more and more common — a sign that the Baltic Sea is getting healthier.
In winter, grey seal mothers come ashore on ice floes or quiet beaches to give birth to their pups. The white-coated pup drinks its mother's very rich, fatty milk and grows extremely quickly — doubling its weight in just a few weeks before its mother leaves and it has to learn to swim and hunt on its own.