15th July 2018.  A swimmer was unexpectedly attacked by a seal last Friday. The National Coastwatch station at Froward Point reported the attack which happened while a man was swimming in Mill Bay Cove, south of Kingswear Castle on the River Dart.

Visibility in the water was poor on Friday, July 13, and the man from Exeter was swimming on his own when the seal attacked him. Malcolm Dando from NCI Froward Point explained that the man was swimming when he felt something brush his feet before feeling a heavy blow to his back. The seal surfaced and looked at the man before biting him on the thigh, breaking the man’s skin, resulting in some bleeding and bruising, which was subsequently described as a minor injury. The man later visited the National Coastwatch station at Froward Point to report the incident and was advised to seek medical advice as a precaution.

The Coastwatch volunteers frequently see seals basking near the Mewstone at low tide. They keep a note of dolphins, other cetaceans and seals for Brixham Sea Watch whose founder Lindy Hingley reported this to be a very rare occurrence. She said seals tend to have poor eye sight and as this is the seal cub season, the animal was probably acting in a defensive mode, rather than aggressively.