IT IS rapidly becoming Southampton's newest attraction and has certainly given the Itchen estuary its seal of approval despite the waterway's proximity to one of the world's busiest ports.

A grey seal has been spotted patrolling the tidal estuary around Southampton Water, delighting those who have seen it and quickly gaining a reputation as a bit of a scrounger.

The seal, thought to be a young male, was first seen on Monday near Weston Shore. It accepted a handout from two teenagers out fishing and scoffed down some battered cod leftovers from their meal the night before.

Since then the canny beast has been returning regularly to his new haunt, close to the Woolston jetty, and he popped up again on Wednesday to give some students from Itchen College a close encounter of the furry kind.

The students watched the seal for about 30 minutes as it inquisitively swam up to them for a quick look before munching on a 3ft eel it had caught.

The seal has already drawn crowds of schoolchildren eager to get a glimpse of an unusual and elusive animal more normally found on the rugged west coast of the UK and the crashing waves of the Atlantic.

Mark Hughes, a public services lecturer at Itchen College was kayaking with some students on the Itchen when he saw the seal swimming in the river.

He said: "We were all shocked because you just don't expect something that size to be living in the Itchen.

"In my years of kayaking on the Itchen I have certainly never seen one before or anything of that nature. It was very friendly though, and we got to within about a foot of it. It was just swanning around the students with no fear."

Seventeen-year-olds Carl Hanley and David Allen, both from Manor Road in Woolston, were the first to sight the seal and also fed it their fish supper.

Battered cod David said: "We were shocked at first, but he looked friendly so we decided to see if it was hungry and went back to get some battered cod from home.

"He didn't seem scared and after he took the cod he just lopped off back into the water and watched us for a while."

The animal was identified as a grey seal by an expert from Marwell Zoo near Winchester, who said it was unusual to see one this far south and east.

Bill Hall added that it was probably cruising for a new pack to join as young males do, and that unlike the whale spotted in London, it was not necessarily ill or in distress.

Common seals, also known as harbour seals, have a resident population at Chichester Harbour and are often spotted swimming up the Thames. But no known previous sightings of a grey seal have come from the Solent area.

Do you have any unusual animal pictures? Call the Daily Echo newsdesk on 023 8042 4522 or e-mail newsdesk@soton-echo.co.uk.