Eye on the Arctic: Questions raised as two species of Arctic seal are spotted in Southern Ireland

The first sighting was on January 1, when an adult hooded seal showed up on the coast of Schull, a town in County Cork. The animal stayed for about a day before going back into the ocean.

Hooded seals’ typical range is in the Arctic Ocean, and in the North Atlantic around Iceland and Greenland.

That was followed on January 2 by reports of a ringed seal pup on the coastline of County Kerry, just to the west of of County Cork.