Dear colleagues,

My co-authors and I are pleased to share our note article recently published open access in Marine Mammal Science: Gray seal cannibalism at the largest colony in the world, Sable Island.

We report the first direct observations of grey seal cannibalism on Sable Island, NS. We also present dead pup survey numbers and an analysis of carcasses, with comparisons to those previously described from directly observed grey seal cannibalism events in Scotland (Brownlow at al. 2016) and indeed those previously attributed to Greenland shark predation on Sable Island (Lucas and Natanson 2010).

Langley, I., Lidgard, D., Varkey, P., Sanchez, M., Rivard, M., & den Heyer, C. (2026). Gray seal cannibalism at the largest colony in the world, Sable Island. Marine Mammal Science, 42(2), e70138. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70138

Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

Izzy

----------------------------------------------------

Dr Izzy Langley

Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)

Scottish Oceans Institute

University of St Andrews

St Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB

Pronouns: She/her

Social media: @izzylangley.bsky.social @LangleyIzzy

For information about grey seal predation, see our project webpage here or email SMRUsealreports@st-andrews.ac.uk

The University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland: No SC013532