With a massive appetite of around a stone (5kg) of fish a day they can dive to a incredible 230 feet (70 meters) in search of food. They are Britain’s largest carnivore while also being amongst the rarest seals in the world.

Males (bulls) can grow up to 8 feet long weighing around 47 stones (300kg) while the females (cows) are a little smaller, weighing in at 31 stones (200kg).  Referred to as ‘Sea Pigs’ they have a long snout with parallel nostrils and can live for up to 40 years.

They were almost hunted to extinction, the population being reduced to just 500 on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1900s.  Atlantic Grey Seals are now a protected species, with numbers of around 120,000 worldwide, 40% of this total residing in British waters.

Keep an eye out on the loch and you may just see a few of these waterborne wonders who were almost lost to the world.