Moment seal is spotted catching fish in London's River Lea in 'sign of cleaner water'

Jacob Jarvis9 April 2019

This is the moment a seal was spotted catching a fish in the River Lea having ventured up the waterway in London.

The sighting is believed to be the furthest a seal has traversed up Bow Creek in the east of the city.

Fascinating video shows the animal splashing around the water with a fish in its mouth, surfacing to the delight of onlookers.

“I first heard a massive splash with thrashing and looked over to see a wave,” said a member of the Surge Cooperative, a non-profit group focused on improving waterways, who spotted the animal.

They said the seal caught the fish then “seemed to play with it, proud to show us the fruits of the chase”.

In the video swans can be seen gliding across the water to inspect what is happening before flying away, having been spooked by the seal.

The seal then carried on and ate the fish before disappearing below the tide.

“We were really buzzing after seeing all that up close,” said the spotter.

Surge Cooperative say it is a “sign of a cleaner River Lea” in Newham and Tower Hamlets.

A member of the group wrote on Twitter: “Now all we need to do is to clean up the riverbeds and rejuvenate the historic moorings."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT