Farne Islands, UK. 15th June, 2013. A curious Grey Seal off The Farne Islands swims across to a diver and opens its mouth to investigate his camera. Cameraman Jack Perks said: "It started mouthing the camera gently to see what it was, as seals explore new things with their mouths. Maybe it saw its reflection in the lens and was curious. It was all over in seconds! " There are thousands of seals off The Farne Islands, but Jack was lucky enough to come across a group known as the "Fin Nibblers", known for nibbling the fins of divers, on his first dive there. Credit: Jack Perks/Alamy Live News
his was my first seal dive having seen them lots when living in cornwall but never underwater until yesterday. there are two species of the seal in the UK with these all being grey seals which the UK has 36% of the entire world population. it was truly a amazing experiance After a brilliant weekends diving in the Farne Islands its was hard to choose which picture sumed it up but has to be this one which may look menacing but is far from it. This was a seal pup who was happliy playing with divers when it noticed me and my camera. it approached slowly and as i could see it getting closer and closer i was like a school boy again! it then started mouthing the camera gently to see what it was as seals dont have hands to explore new things only there mouths. it then swam off and was all over in a matter of seconds! the colony on the farnes has thousands of seals but only a few were in the water when we were there and on the first dive we were lucky to run into a group known as the fin nibblers! they sneak behind divers and nibble the fins and rub there cheeks on them and not in a aggressive way more playful and curious as to what we are. it was mainly just to explore more of the UK as being a UK based wildlife photographer i have never tried for underwater seal shots. we dived off a boat and then waited for the seals to come to us as your never going to be able to catch up with a seal underwater! to start of they hanged back but once they got used to our presence they got bolder and eventully came right up to us. it certainly isnt agrressive behaviour as these are big animals and if they wanted to harm you they could but instead they swim gracefully around you and seem intrigued as what we are doing there. as they dont have hands they explore there world with there mouth so when the young pup was nibblerling the camera it was trying to find out what it was maybe it saw its reflection in the lens and was curious.
Size: 4800px × 3600px
Photo credit: © jack perks / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: farne, grey, grypus, halichoerus, islands, northumberland, seal, underwater
