Hundreds of dead seals in Canada

By Daniel La Ponsie, 23 January, 2011, No Comment

http://www.datelinezero.com/2011/01/23/hundreds-of-dead-seals-in-canada/

People on the north coast of Labrador say scores of dead seals have been washing ashore since early December.

A conservation officer with the area’s Inuit government estimated late last week that hundreds of adult and young seals have died in the area between Hopedale and Makkovik this winter.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is testing the carcasses, but Nunatsiavut conservation officer Ian Winters said many people in the area believe DFO hasn’t acted quickly enough.

“I think they should have been up here earlier, if you’re asking me. A lot of people said the same thing. So, maybe it’s not on top of their agenda,” he said.

Usually at this time of year seals are on sea ice south of Hopedale, said Winters, but he said there is very little ice there now.

Last month, people in northern Labrador found the bodies of dead seal pups on the coast. At the time, a federal seal researcher said the early birth of seal pups in Labrador may be an indication the area’s seal population has grown too large.

DFO researcher Garry Stenson said that seal population growth could lead to reproductive problems. “What you expect in a population that is starting to regulate itself are things like lower reproductive rates and variable reproductive rates, but also higher pup mortality and also higher juvenile mortality,” he said Monday in St. John’s.