9 h. ago A Year With the Seals review – what to know about the elusive sea creature

A science journalist delves deep into our sometimes fraught relationship with these intelligent animals‘There is no creature born, even among the greater apes, which more resembles a human baby in its ways and its cries than a baby grey seal,” wrote the ecologist Frank Fraser Darling in 1939. Seals’ large eyes, the five digits of their flippers, their lanugo – the soft down with which they (and sometimes we) are born – all erode the mental barriers we erect between ourselves and our marine cousins. According to Faroese legend, there are even seals, known as selkies, that can shed their skins, assume human form and live undetected among us.The selkie myth is just one that appears in the Maine-based science writer Alix Morris’s compelling book, which explores seals’ fraught relationship with culture, the economy and our imaginations. She charts the varied and conflicting ways in which we conceive of these creatures: as reviled competitors for fish, magnets for great white sharks, or d...

Politics

1 week ago 'I visited idyllic beach during heatwave and couldn't believe what washed up on shore'

Locals hoping to make the most of the hot weather by heading to the beach were left spooked after they found tens of sea creatures had washed up on the shore

Society

1 week ago Jellyfish invasion sweeps UK beaches as swarms spotted off seaside beauty spot

The jellyfish invasion has hit the UK already with swarms of the stinging sea creatures spotted off the coast of Devon with more potentially on the way

Events

2 w. ago Europe heat record: Spain and Portugal boil in highest temperatures as wildfires rage across continent fanned by 'suffocating' heatwave while Brit goes missing on Greek island

A punishing heatwave continued to devastate Europe on Monday, with authorities battling wildfires from France to Turkey, and temperatures set to rise further still.

Events

2 w. ago Urgent warning to Brit holidaymakers as 'suffocating' 46C European heatwave triggers invasion of venomous sea creatures in the Med

A punishing heatwave continued to devastate Europe on Monday, with authorities battling wildfires from France to Turkey, and temperatures set to rise further still.

Events

2 w. ago Something fishy: the best of Belfast photo festival – in pictures

From peat bogs containing centuries of history to the fascinating world of sea creatures’ senses, the theme for this year’s annual event is ‘Biosphere’ Continue reading...

Culture