By James Morgan, Science reporter, BBC News 
Harbour seals, or common seals, are familiar faces along coastlines across the northern hemisphere. But they are now vanishing in the UK at an alarming rate, warn scientists from St Andrews University. Numbers have halved in the hardest hit area, the Orkney Islands, since 2001 – falling almost 10% each year. There will soon be "no harbour seals left" in some areas if the mysterious decline continues, said Professor Ian Boyd, of the Sea Mammal Research Unit.
Harbour seals’ decline ‘alarming’
