Plankton + Fish
+ Seals
= Healthy Ocean

Grey Seal Conservation Society (GSCS) Mission Statement

"Illegal Grey Seal Hunt" Hay Island, February 2008

Photo courtesy: biker, www.fokarium.pl

It seems...apparent that the continuing survival of dotars (harbour seals) and horseheads (grey seals) in Canadian waters will depend, not on enlightened and honest policies applied by government departments and their patrons and lackeys, but on independent conservation organizations such as may take up the battle on behalf of the grey seal."

- Farley Mowat, in "Sea of Slaughter," 1984

(Grey Seal Conservation Society (GSCS) Director)

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"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals...We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err.

For the animals shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complex than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.

They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the Earth."

Henry Beston

(Photo courtesy Alix D'Entremont)

Seal-fisheries interactions
"We've got a huge seal population and a very fragile fish stock and it's a nasty combination."  - Earle McCurdy, president FFAW  (...more)



Consider the fragile cod: fish food (plankton) is critical for healthy fish, and seals have always been in the business of building plankton...

Grey Seal Gallery coming soon...

Grey Seals of Fox Harbour. Feb 11/07

(click on image to enlarge)
Grey Seal Conservation Society (GSCS) Collage
Melmerby Beach, 2005

The Grey Seal Conservation Societies (GSCS) new information brochure. (...more) July 23/05

Tourism
The stench of rotting seal carcasses is off-putting to say the least...see *photo gallery of dead Nova Scotian "nuisance seals" (*WARNING: graphic content)

 The "other" white coat
Grey seal pups, like the better known Canadian harp seal pups, are born with soft white fur. Some claim, however, that the grey seal pup is "not cute"...you decide.

See also: (GSCS) denounces harp seal hunt and Predator-prey relationship not a simple equation...

Grey Seal Conservation Society (GSCS) invites all "artists" and "photographers" to submit their "grey seal" pictures...

Seal Stories: here we offer a collection of unique encounters with seals that individuals from various parts of the world have had the pleasure of experiencing...

News

"Illegal Grey Seal Hunt" Hay Island February 2008

"Killing the Seals of Nova Scotia." The Animals Voice Magazine. Mar 01/07

Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans - Formal evidence to Federal Government of Canada. Nov 09/06

Brief to Parliament on seal hunt. Nov 09/06

Seal diseases update...Oct 23/06

Formal evidence given to the Provincial Government of Nova Scotia and the committee on Natural Resources. Oct 03/06

Sea Creatures Make a Healthy Ocean Planet, Air Included. July 13/06

Stricter food safety rules needed for seals. May 26/06

Letter to Mr.Strahl "Minister responsible for the safety of seal products." May 19/06

Seal oil leaves a fishy aftertaste. April 20/06

Seal hunt ecologically irresponsible. March 29/06

Grey Seals hunted in wildlife sanctuary. February 24/06

DFO approves harvest of 2,100 grey seal pups... February 17/06

Intense winter storm kills 1,500 grey seal pups on Pictou Island. February 1/06

DFO Seal Forum 2005 and comments on Ecosystem Science omitted from the seal hunt plan. November 21/05

Predator-prey relationship not a simple question March 30/05

500 Grey Seals killed in Cape Breton March 16/05

(GSCS) denounces harp seal hunt March 14/05
.
(more news)


Juvenile grey seal, close encounter

Grey Seal History
"Throughout the latter part of the eighteenth century, the demand for train oil kept growing and the consequent destruction of walrus and whales increased the burden on the seals of providing oil..." (...more, from Farley Mowat)

Seal Oil
This pricey modern "snake oil" (claims to cure multiple human ills) leaves "a fishy after-taste." But, the rising PCB and mercury content of marine mammal blubber poses a subtle, if tasteless, threat to human consumers.

"Seal diseases update..."

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