The Irish Seal Sanctuary has begun an investigation into a series of seal deaths off the coast of Wexford.
Over the past week, seven dead adult grey seals have been found with their skulls damaged along a 3km stretch of the south Wexford coastline. Of the recovered carcasses, all had suffered massive head trauma, with a number having sustained broken jaws while the skulls of the others had been completely shattered.
On Saturday seal sanctuary workers recovered three dead seals at Booley Bay, a small cove just south of Duncannon, and four more on Duncannon beach.
All the carcasses were adult grey seals. The National Parks and Wildlife service and the Garda were alerted and attended the scene. A seal sanctuary spokesman said that grey seals commonly get caught up in herring net trawls around this time of the year, but he said such a high incidence of strandings on a short stretch of coastline merited further investigation.
He appealed to anyone walking the beaches of Wexford to report any dead strandings to the sanctuary on 01 8354370. Grey seals are a protected species, but some fishermen regard them as pests because of the amount of fish they consume and because they can damage nets.
The seal sanctuary spokesman said some of its best supporters around the coast were fishermen and it would be disappointing if some resorted to "barbaric actions".