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Last Updated: Monday, January 17, 2011 | 11:01 AM ET CBC News
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.
"Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear." -Nelson Mandela
Boat Harbour residents baffled by arrival of dead seals, fish
<SMALL class=credit>Juris Graney/Transcontinental Media</SMALL>
Boat Harbour's Wallace Woodward inspects some of the estimated 20 dead harp seals that have washed ashore in the community over the past couple of weeks.
Boat Harbour ? As many as 20 dead harp seals have washed ashore in Boat Harbour over the past couple of weeks, leaving perplexed locals scratching their heads as to the reasons why.
Wallace Woodward, who has lived in the small community northwest of St. Anthony for most of his 52 years, says no one can remember such a thing happening before.
Last week, the carcasses of several seals lolled about in the breakwater; some had been pushed ashore by strong waves and others were buried under three feet of seaweed.
And it?s not just harp seals that have been swept into the harbour ? hundreds of dead catfish have washed onto land, becoming entangled with the seaweed strewn along the shore.
"Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear." -Nelson Mandela
UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, SEAL - CANADA: (NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR)
************************************************** *************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
Hundreds of dead seals in Labrador
----------------------------------
People on the north coast of Labrador say scores of dead seals have
been washing ashore since early December [2010].
A conservation officer with the area's Inuit government estimated late
last week [week of 10 Jan 2011] that hundreds of adult and young seals
have died in the area between Hopedale and Makkovik this winter
[2010-2011].
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is testing the carcasses,
but Nunatsiavut [autonomous area claimed by the Inuit in Newfoundland
and Labrador] conservation officer Ian Winters said many people in the
area believe DFO hasn't acted quickly enough.
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 [December 2010], 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 [17 Jan 2011] in St.
John's.
Stenson said the harp seal population of Atlantic Canada is now at
between 8 and 9 million. A 2004 assessment of seal stocks estimated
the harp seal population in the area at between 4.6 and 7.2 million.
Stenson said the DFO received 5 reports of seals giving birth on the
coast of Labrador in December [2010], although the nomadic sea mammals
normally give birth in late February or early March.
He said the early births are happening on land rather than ice floes
and it's unlikely the newborn pups will survive.
[So the question may be, why are they birthing on land, not on the ice flows? Are the pups premature? What has induced labor?
More than just looking at populations, why not do a necropsy on the seal pups and see if there is something there? Are there any viruses that cause abortion? How long are the pups living and are they full term? Are they nursing? It seems these are basic investigative questions that should be answered.
Hopefully an authoritative report will be conducted and results released soon. - Mod.TG]
[Newfoundland and Labrador can be seen on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail
interactive map of Canada at
<http://healthmap.org/r/0mQf>. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]
...................................tg/mj/dk
[...]
"Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear." -Nelson Mandela
UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, SEAL - CANADA (02): (NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR)
************************************************** ******************
A ProMED-mail post
<http://www.promedmail.org>
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>
Regarding "Undiagnosed die-off, seal - Canada: (NL) 20110118.0207,"
here is some information to date.
There are dead, apparently premature, harp seal pups and adults
(_Phoca groenlandica_) on shore over a wide geographic area including
the St. Lawrence Estuary but mostly off northern Newfoundland and
Labrador. Confirmed numbers dead are in the low hundreds so far and
involve mostly adult animals. Reports of early pupping began around
Christmas. Strong storm surges in early January 2011 have brought
some carcasses ashore.
Harp seals migrate down from the arctic in late fall to eventually
give birth and breed on the Front (off eastern Newfoundland and
Labrador) and Gulf of St. Lawrence in late winter. The normal period
for harp seal parturition is end of February, early March. It is
natural for some harp seal pups to be born premature even in January.
The harp seal population is estimated at 8 to 9 million animals with
natural mortality estimated at 4 percent.
Mortality of pups in their 1st year of life is estimated at 20 - 30
percent, declining with age. Pups are nursed for about 12 days then
abandoned, after which they fast and moult on the ice as it ice
drifts into the North Atlantic in early spring (April/May). As the
ice melts pups swim and begin to hunt on their own, eventually moving
northwards. After abandoning their pups females mate and adults rest
on the ice to moult and eventually migrate north. Harp seals spend
about 6 months in arctic waters and 6 months off southeastern
Canadian Atlantic waters.
Observed mortalities may be unusual but expected due to poor to
absent ice conditions and the size of the herd. We are examining
carcasses and differentials include environmental change, poaching
and an epizootic. Adults appear in good body condition. Phocine
distemper virus or PDV (morbillivirus) is enzootic in this population
and while epizootics have killed thousands of seals in Europe,
epizootics have not been observed in Canadian waters perhaps due to
herd immunity (83 percent of examined harp seals are seropositive to
PDV). Necropsies and further investigations are in progress in
collaboration with fisheries agents and veterinary pathologists at
provincial and university laboratories including the Canadian
Co-operative Wildlife Health Center.
"Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear." -Nelson Mandela
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