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Storm surge sweeps newborn seals to their death

Thursday, 02 Feb 2006
CBC News

Hundreds of dead seal pups are expected to wash up on the shores of Nova Scotia in the aftermath of a severe winter storm.

A major storm surge on Wednesday swept scores of grey seal pups that had just been born on Pictou Island out to sea, where they drowned.

The adult seals came ashore on Pictou Island to give birth because there is little ice in the strait. Jane MacDonald, one of the 18 people who live on the island year round, watched in horror as the adult seals tried desperately to save their pups.

"The mothers just push them and push them with their nose, and they dive back under and push them back up, and they get back into the tide wash, and then a big wave will hit and just sweep them back out to sea," she said.

Grey seals prefer to give birth on ice floes. But with little ice in the strait this year, the estimated herd of 2,000 moved ashore to Pictou Island.

Gerry Conway, an adviser on marine mammals for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said newborn pups are still too weak to swim.

"I would anticipate we will see indications of high mortality of these seal pups over the next week or two as they wash ashore," he said. "Some of them will not show up, of course, but a lot of them will show up along the beaches of Nova Scotia."

Conway said such incidents are rare but happen from time to time.

 

 

Ice shortage forces seals invasion

February 1, 2006

By Valerie Iancovich,

This winter, 3000 seals have been forced to beach and birth on Pictou Island, N.S. Fisheries scientists are attributing the abnormal behaviour to warming, ice-free water in the Northumberland Strait.

The mammoth creatures usually give birth on floating ice floes, but this winter's unusually mild weather has made that an impossibility.

The tiny island off the mainland is a likely a good choice for the animals as it is accessible to people only by charter plane and populated by a scarce 18 inhabitants.

Scientists are warning those who may be curious about the cute seal pups that they must stay away from the island visitors.

At 360 kilograms, an angry or threatened mother, can be very dangerous. "What people should do is what they would for any wild animal — recognize that these are wild animals and they're not pets," said Frank Ring, from the department of Fisheries. Some island residents are a bit annoyed by their new neighbours.

Ron MacDonald, a local fisherman, complained that the seals are "getting out of hand," "There are a lot more seals every year than there have been over the last 20 years.

 

 

Seals move to Nova Scotia islands to give birth

Tuesday. Jan. 31 2006

CTV.ca News

The warm winter weather has forced thousands of grey seals onto the shores of Pictou Island, N.S. to give birth.

Normally the seals would be out on ice floes in the middle of the Northumberland Strait, but the warm weather had resulted in a lack of ice.

"There is practically no ice cover at all in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is unusual," Leroy MacEachern, of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said.

"That is even different than last year when we had seals come ashore on the coastline of Nova Scotia."

The normal human population of the island in wintertime is 18, but the total population has exploded with the arrival of the seals.

Seals may look cute and cuddly, but the DFO -- which says it is illegal to harass seals -- is warning the public to leave the wild animals alone. The agency says seals may attack if they are cornered or threatened.

The female seals will abandon their pups after three weeks. But the pups will stay either onshore or close to shore for another two to three weeks, at which time they'll shed their white coats for grey, mottled ones.

Some local fishermen believe that the large seal population needs to be culled.

"They're getting out of hand," Ron MacDonald, a local fisherman, said. "There are a lot more seals every year than there have been over the last 20 years. The population is increasing and there doesn't seem to be much of a cull to keep them under control."

Some of the Pictou Island residents, however, feel protective of the seals.

"Whether it's instinctive or whether or not it was just the way the wind was blowing, it seems that they somehow feel safer here," Jane MacDonald said, as a baby seal nuzzled some seaweed laying on the sand.

With files from CTV's Dan MacIntosh

(click on image to enlarge)

Baby seals killed in tide

Storm surge sweeps about 1,500 pups off Pictou Island
By CHRIS LAMBIE

The bawling of grey seal pups sounded eerily human Thursday as they flopped up and down the beach, searching for their mothers.

About 2,000 adult female seals crawled up on the shores of Pictou Island last week to give birth because the Gulf of St. Lawrence hadn’t frozen due to mild weather, so there were no ice floes on which they could have their pups.

But Wednesday’s massive storm surge sucked an estimated 1,500 baby seals off the beaches to a watery grave. The next day, many of the remaining white-coated pups seemed lost as they sniffed around the carcasses of those that weren’t lucky enough to survive.

"It’s very, very sad here today," island resident Jane MacDonald said Thursday.

"The mothers would actually get their pups right into our beach, and then the waves would hit and take them out. Many, many, many drowned. This morning, we woke up to baby seal carcasses everywhere."

The tide was about six metres higher than normal on Wednesday, she said.

"The problem on the north side of the island is that it’s either rock or high vertical banks, so once that tide came in, the mothers had nowhere to put those pups," Ms. MacDonald said. "So they were literally all swept into the sea."

"Another problem we have here at the moment is that a couple of pups have made it in alive, but their moms aren’t here," Ms. MacDonald said. "The mothers identify their babies by scent. But because they’ve been in the water so long, they would not be able to identify them. So we have several pups here that have no mom, and of course, they’re going to starve to death."

Seals at the island’s east end fared better in the storm.

"Many of them were able to move their pups up from the beach and into the woods," Ms. MacDonald said.

"Hundreds of adult seals and pups dotted the beach Thursday, but that was nothing compared to earlier in the week when there was barely room for them to move," Ms. MacDonald said.

The storm surge probably didn’t harm adult seals, said Jerry Conway, a marine mammal expert with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

"There’s every indication that we’re going to see about 75 per cent mortality at least of the newborn pups," Mr. Conway said.

"The majority of pups that have just been born don’t have the wherewithal to survive a storm like that. They don’t have sufficient blubber to give them the buoyancy, and of course, they’re not very strong anyway."

Female grey seals’ maternal instinct diminishes about three weeks after giving birth, when they abandon their pups.

"So some of those pups who have already been abandoned may have enough strength and blubber to survive," Mr. Conway said.

The remainder will either wash ashore, where birds will feast on them, or die and be eaten at sea.

"There may be some benefit to the marine ecosystem," Mr. Conway said.

"For example, lobsters in that area should flourish nicely next year."

He warned people not to try to help the pups.

"They may look cute and cuddly and like they just came out of a Disney movie, but they are wild animals and they have a very nasty bite, which would require, at a minimum, some antibiotics and even worse, stitches," Mr. Conway said.

Starting in late March, harp seals arrive in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to pup. "If there’s no ice, then we’re going to be faced with a similar problem as we now have in Pictou with the grey seals," Mr. Conway said.

The Gulf’s grey seal population is about 100,000.

Research has shown that, up until this year, it was growing at about 12 per cent annually, doubling every eight years.

"It’s an extremely robust, thriving population," said Sara Iverson, a seal expert who teaches in Dalhousie University’s biology department.

"It has been growing exponentially for the past four decades. It appears that exponential growth is slowing down.

Not everyone on Pictou Island bemoans the fate of the seals.

"Being a lobster fisherman, I’m not heartbroken because I think they eat their fair amount of lobsters," said Paul Connelly.

"Maybe this is going to become a common occurrence," Mr. Connelly said.

(clambie@herald.ca)

(click on image to enlarge)