A SEAL has been spotted swimming in the River Ouse in Bishopthorpe.

Ryan Kay, 36, was enjoying a picnic with his four-year-old son Fred near their home when he spotted the creature on a stretch of the river near Bishopthorpe Palace.

Mr Kay said: “Fred just said what’s that in the water and at first it looked like an otter or a beaver, both of which I’ve seen in the wild, but then it bobbed up and snorted and rolled over and I could see it was a seal.”

He said the mammal, more commonly associated with the ocean than a river 50 miles inland, looked as though it had a tag on its tail, and that he thought it was a grey seal.

He said: “I was looking around to see if anyone else had seen it but there wasn’t anyone around. I tried to film it with my camera but wasn’t quite quick enough.”

At the beginning of April firefighter Peter Barrett saw a seal in the River Foss. The most famous seal in the Ouse was Sammy, who took up residence in Linton Lock, north of York, in 2002, and stayed for months.