Two records were made at Cumbria’s only grey seal colony this year, and work began to engage and support community involvement with England’s very first inshore Highly Protected Marine Area, found right here in Cumbria. Cumbria Wildlife Trust shares news of these, and other marine highlights of 2025.

At the start of the year a record number of grey seals were counted at South Walney Nature Reserve near Barrow: a total of 563 seals were counted, using a drone. The seal colony at South Walney has grown from fewer than 10 seals in the 1980s and 90s. The previous highest grey seal counts were 518 (in 2021), 483 (in 2019) and 360 (in 2018), showing a healthy upward trend year on year.

Since seal pup season got underway (a month earlier than usual, in late August!) at least 14 seal pups have been recorded – the previous highest number of pups was 10. Speaking about these very successful seal numbers, Georgia de Jong Cleyndert, Head of Marine at Cumbria Wildlife Trust said: “Both these records are very exciting and show how the seal colony is thriving at South Walney. 

“But we mustn’t take these numbers for granted: they’re testament to the hard work that’s been going on for years at South Walney Nature Reserve, to ensure that the colony is not disturbed, so that the seals will continue to return here year on year to breed. It shows how important it is to give these seals their space to rest, feed and breed safely.”

To ensure the safety of the colony, Georgia reminds all visitors that there’s no public access to where the seals haul out at South Walney. Kayakers, anglers, jet skiers and boats should maintain at least 100m distance from the seal colony at all times. The 100m distance applies to watching them on land as well. You can get good views of the seals with binoculars from a safe distance – find out more about watching seals responsibly here: https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/seal-disturbance-cumbrias-coastline

In July two University of Cumbria students made an award-winning film raising awareness of the urgent issue of wildlife disturbance on Cumbria’s coastline, focusing on South Walney and Foulney Island nature reserves. Detect and Protect was made in conjunction with Cumbria Wildlife Trust by Isobel Drake and Poppy Hotham, who were recognised at the University of Cumbria's 2025 graduations, honoured with the Industry and Entrepreneurship prize.

Their film focuses on the sensitive habitats at the nature reserves which are under growing pressure due to human disturbance, particularly during critical seabird-breeding and seal pupping seasons. Bekka Watts, South Walney Assistant Warden at Cumbria Wildlife Trust who features in the film said: “We’re so grateful to Isobel and Poppy for making this important film – it really helped us share the important message of how special our coastal wildlife is and how we can all help protect it, in particular during breeding seasons, so that the grey seals and amazing seabirds continue to return and breed here.”

In July Cumbria Wildlife Trust announced it had received a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for engaging local communities around Allonby Bay, a five-and-a-half mile crescent-shaped bay on the Solway Firth.

Two years ago Allonby Bay was designated by the Government as the first inshore Highly Protected Marine Area (HPMA) in England, to protect the area’s special marine wildlife. The £250,000 award enables Cumbria Wildlife Trust to work with local communities to promote the unique status of Allonby Bay and ensure that their views are represented in decision-making.  

This year Joe Harper was appointed Allonby Bay Engagement Officer for Cumbria Wildlife Trust. He’s now working alongside local people and businesses, to bring a greater understanding of what the designation of HPMA means and a clearer idea of how everyone can benefit from it.

Joe explains: “The sea at Allonby Bay hides a world of marine life – some species live on the muddy ocean floor, others are just beneath the waves. The sea here is home to weird and wonderful life like sea squirts, anemones, reef-building honeycomb worms, cuttlefish, plaice, skate and thornback rays. It’s also a potential pupping area for harbour porpoises. 

“Allonby Bay is actually in a pretty good state, so it was designated to safeguard its wildlife and habitats, to help us further understand the ecological impact of removing any remaining pressures from over-exploitation or damaging activities, and to provide an example of what’s possible for marine wildlife, if we allow it the space to recover fully.”

As well as working with several local businesses this year, Joe has been developing the current Marine Champions work that’s happening throughout Cumbria's coastline, with the view of training new marine champions in the future. Three newly-created Wildlife Watch groups on Cumbria’s west coast are bringing children back to nature and Joe’s been supporting a new Young Volunteers West Group that’s working in Allonby Bay to research it's bird and dune health.

Seagrass restoration work has continued this year and in April the work of Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s seagrass project was recognised with an award. Amber Gould and Beth Churn, Marine Conservation Officers with Cumbria Wildlife Trust, were presented with the Coastal Best Practice award (part of the North West Awards for Coastal Excellence) for the project, at a conference run by the North West Coastal Forum.

Amber and Beth have been running the seagrass restoration project in the Walney Channel for the past two years. Following extensive surveying of the existing seagrass beds, they then trained volunteers who are now helping them to restore the seagrass, by transplanting seeds from healthy sites to places where the seagrass has been lost.

Seagrass is one of our most valuable habitats and plays a huge role in tackling climate change. One of the largest areas in the region can be found in the Walney Channel but there’s been a 60% decline in seagrass over the last century. 

Amber said: “We’re so grateful to our growing team of volunteers which is helping us carry out our seagrass restoration – we couldn’t do it without them! It’s really important work, as seagrass acts as a ‘blue carbon’ habitat, removing carbon from the atmosphere and locking it away in plants and mud. It also provides an important habitat for marine life, including commercially-important fish and critically-endangered species. Thank you to everyone who is onboard with seagrass restoration and has helped us over the year!”

Amber led 45 seagrass fieldwork excursions this year; 52 people have helped collect seeds over 10 days, amounting to an amazing 250 hours of seagrass seed picking and processing! 

Finally, as always, there were several intriguing marine wildlife sightings off the coast of Cumbria this year. In January, a 13-legged starfish washed up on the Solway Firth. Amber Gould said: “This was an exciting find: it’s called a common sunstar, but it’s not that common here in the North West, so we were very pleased to hear about it!” 

The common sunstar has an orangey-red disc (the centre) with beautiful concentric bands of yellow, orange, pink or white. It’s sun-shaped, with more arms than other starfish: normally 10-12, but occasionally 8-16. The common sunstar is a voracious predator, feeding on sea cucumbers, brittlestars, starfish and even other sunstars!

In May there were sightings of a huge swarm of jellyfish at St Bees beach. Amber explains: “They were barrel jellyfish, one of the giants of the jellyfish world, and the UK’s largest jellyfish by diameter. They can grow to the size of dustbin lids – giving them their other common name: dustbin-lid jellyfish.

“It’s not uncommon for them to swarm in warmer coastal waters in late spring and see them wash up on our beaches in May or June, sometimes in their hundreds. Their favourite meal is plankton, which can be found in shallow waters. This is what often causes them to wash up, as they underestimate their size and get washed up by the tide.”

Amber added that while the sting of the barrel jellyfish is not normally harmful to humans, if you find one on the beach it's best not to handle it as they can still sting when dead.

Find out how you can help Cumbria Wildlife Trust and other Wildlife Trusts in the North West support marine wildlife and nature’s recovery at sea https://www.livingseasnw.org.uk/