It is an embarrassment India's government doesn't improve the air pollution problem, and instead let their people breath unclean air. Pitiful. They are a very backward country to allow this to happen. It is clear their politicians are corrupt, have few morals, and lack any concern for the health of their people. Pitiful. I am glad they live so far away from the U.S. so we don't have to be neighbors.
1
Can't the "indigenous people" aka Eskimo's harvest them legally? Let them take them for skins and meat.
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@Sparky Jones The closest Inuit community is more than 300 miles away by plane, so that is not really a viable option. Just a note: Although the name "Eskimo" is commonly used in the US / Alaska to refer to Inuit and Yupik peoples, "Inuit," meaning "people," is used in most of Canada.
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@Sparky Jones
You couldn't even bother to look at the map provided?
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@Sparky Jones, the indigenous people of Newfoundland died out almost 200 years ago. The current “natives” are mostly of Scottish and Irish heritage.
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The story reads as if the seals were desperately trying to get away from something, and dry land seemed like the better choice.
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@Truth Is True How so?
"Harp seals spend winters in the waters off Newfoundland, and it is common for them to go ashore at times, and to swim into bays like the long, narrow ocean inlet that borders Roddickton-Bide Arm, said Garry Stenson, head of the marine mammal section at Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
“Then if the ice freezes up behind them, they have a harder time getting access to water,” he told the Canadian broadcaster, CBC. “It’s almost like they get going in a direction and just keep going, hoping that they’re going to eventually find water that way.”"
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I think the best approach is to leave the planning to entice the seals back into open waters should be left with Fisheries & Oceans experts on the ground.
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Not as easy a task to save them as you might think. 300 pounds is roughly twice the size of a cougar and they do bite. Also the town is impossibly tiny and remote, literally at the end of the road, hundreds of kilometers from the TransCanada, a thousand from St. John's. I doubt the town has enough tranquilizer around for 40 300-pound carnivores, let alone anyone with the expertise to dart a marine mammal covered in fat. It's difficult and expensive to bring experts in. There must be a supply ferry every week or two but the North Atlantic in winter is no joke. You can't land a seaplane on the ocean and the lakes and bays are frozen, but are they frozen enough for an ice plane? Just not doable. And harp seals are common. It's sad, but this is a very difficult place to live no matter what kind of creature you are.
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This will likely go down just as the Occupy movement did in the United States....nothing accomplished except a raised awareness.
The lack of clearly articulated grievances and goals, coupled with no organizational or leadership structure is a recipe for future dissolution of the effort simply due to lack of truly long-term sustained interest on the part of the masses.
Change comes from within, so the fastest way to get something done is still to simply buy a politician.
Many here just say put them back in the water. When the question is why did they do this?
2
The harp seals come ashore driven by ice which is driven by wind. Interaction with wildlife can kill them in several ways. If you feed them, they quickly become used to it and will stay, frequently starving if people stop feeding them when they are so emboldened they become a dangerous nuisance. If you tranquilizer the seal, you can't touch them or handle them directly because they will smell like humans which other seals might reject.
If you somehow get the seals out as much as several kilometres to the open water, you need to wait till the seal is properly awake before releasing it or it will drown. While waiting you have to be carefull not to slip through the moving ice pans at the water's edge. You also have to hope the wind doesn't change around and begin to blow offshore because you would be blown offshore with the wind, and the ice pans you are on will disperse.
Wildlife people are in the community waiting to see what will happen. If we're lucky, the wing may turn and blow the ice offshore and the seals can leave. These people are trained in proper marine mammal rescue if the time comes when it can be used.
Incidentally, the local people who are concerned for the trapped seals may very well be people who live off the land when they can. They fish, hunt moose, rabbit, birds as allowed in season. They might also hunt seals both to eat and for the pelts, legally and in season. Till then, they will do whatever is needed to save the seals if called upon by Wildlife.
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I’ve worked in marine mammal rescue. All anyone needs to do is — using caution, strong gloves, a sturdy net and some plywood to guard against bites — load those seals up in a truck and take them as close to the edge of the ice as you can get. Then leave them there. The seals will figure it out from there. The seals would be getting weak at this point, so it would be less of a struggle to wrestle them into a truck. I don’t understand the delay, and all this “we will form a committee to draft a plan to design a rescue operation to maybe someday rescue the seals, when we have time” thing. It’s absurd.
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@Passion for Peaches. Yes, but have you worked with marine mammal rescue in ice-covered or ice-infested waters? I hate to break it to you, but you can’t just drive a 5000 to 7000 pound truck to the edge of the sea ice, unless you a) want to lose your truck, b) drown, or c) do both.
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All "anyone" needs to do is... Since you're so sure of the solution, why don't you rush to get first in the line of "anyones"?
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Can't the government make an exception to save these many stranded animals? I understand the reasoning behind the law banning interaction between humans and sea mammals, but it can intervene in this case and save stranded creatures.
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@NYTheaterGeek The law seems to be placing a limit on non-official interaction with the seals, explaining why residents can't do anything to help, as that is what the paragraph where the law is brought up is discussing. The reason officials haven't relocated the seals is simply because they are still determining the best method to do so.
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@NYTheaterGeek, I would gladly get arrested to help those animals.
1
Near my house, we sometimes see groups of seals and sea lions on the beaches and piers. Occasionally, a younger animal will appear to be stranded and people set out to help them, not realizing they may actually be harming the animal.
Other than bites which can lead to infections in humans, there are also concerns about whether the animals or their babies will be accepted by their wild relatives once they have been touched by human hands even briefly. So the general rule for dealing with wild animals that I learned from the Marine Mammal Rescue Center nearby is to call them for help and never try to move an animal yourself without training.
I suspect there are reasons like this which prevent what may look like a simple imperative to act.
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@ms, in California you should call a marine mammal rescue organization of you see seals or sea lions (or otters) in distress. The Marine Mammal Center covers the central and north coast. In Southern California there are other groups that will help, including a Pacific Marine Mammal Center, and Sea World.
This situation is entirely different from the one you mention, ms. I have seen what you describe, minus the good intentions. I was once guarding a stranded baby seal and told a man walking nearby to keep his kids away from it. He ran and got more kids and the off-leash dog. People can be absolutely horrible and selfish monsters.
These harp seals are in iminent danger, cannot get themselves out of this situation, and need to be moved immediately. A citizen’s brigade, with some quick training and the appropriate equipment, could take care of them in a day.
2
The problem is that it's winter and the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland is surrounded by ice floes. When the wind blows into shore, it pushes the ice against the shoreline. This can result in miles of ice pack jammed between land and open water. At this time of year, this harp seal population is migrating south away from the encroaching ice pack. If they get trapped by ice and can't dive to fish, they can starve. Or maybe the wind will shift and enough ice will blow out that they can swim away.
Sometimes the polar bears that hunt the migrating seals will also get stranded on northern shores of Newfoundland by pack ice. And sometimes Wildlife officials will tranquilize and transport a polar bear so it can get back to the ice floes and its hunting. But of course, it's not a problem to leave a sedated polar bear on solid land to recover, especially when it has no predators.
It's a different problem to successfully transport a seal over an expanse of sea ice to open water, and not as easy to solve as some commenters here seem to believe.
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@Anne Thanks for explaining. And for reminding me to keep my mouth shut and listen or ask for more information the next time I feel the compulsion to sound off about something I know nothing about.
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Very nice insight, Anne with an E.
The indigenous people have witnessed this phenomenon for thousands of years and in their languages they have dozens of words to define what we just call snow. As do, perhaps the Vikings.
While observing nature, the curious mind questions what the world around us is trying to say to us or show us, without words. Sometimes that is a whisper, other times it yells and screams or cries.
Could this phenomenon also be a sign of encroachment? Maybe something in the water such as sonar or other man made disturbances and they are trying to flee from?
The Monarch Butterfly migration has been severely disturbed and nearly destroyed. And from what? Air quality, radio frequency disturbances, powerful lasers or other light in the spectrum being manipulated by any number of bad actors?
The wind cries Mary and we need to look into why...!
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@Anne, seals do not need to be tranquilized to be moved. Polar bears are darted for transport because they can and will kill anyone who gets near thems. Seals do bite, but they are certainly not as lethal as bears. They can be caught and moved (either crated individually, or in a truck with panel sides). They could be let loose in a place near open water, where they at least have a chance to find it. It can be done. Talking about it until they die of starvation is a travesty.
1
In our country we always help stranded seals or other animals -if possible- to get back to the sea. Is there no animal rescue organisation in Canada who can handle this, circa 40 seals...if we can do it so can the Canadians. Come on! It's not necessary to let them starve or kill them. A town that boasts about wildlife; well, the more reason to make sure these animals don't come to further harm!
Alas, when I read this I became very cynical. When I was 8 yrs old, I'm now 62, I wrote a letter to the Canadian government about the annual horrifying killing of thousands of these seal pups, which is still an ongoing affair. So I'm pessimistic concerning this problem, do they care? AND by the way CANADA: stop that killing of the pup seals, fur is out!
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@Sas - good points, but I doubt that your ice is quite like that in Newfoundland.
8
The Netherlands doesn't have anything like the climate of Newfoundland, it's apparent from simply looking at the photos. Your shoreline doesn't move, you've got solid surface (ground) and then you have water, and you know where both are at all times. Pack ice in NL changes all that. If you had the experience to deal with wild animals, I'd like to see you deal with real, wild nature and not a polder. You wouldn't live to comment on it.
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@Sas
Please educate yourself on Canadian seal hunt practices. White seal pups are no longer killed.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada-is-never-ever-going-to-stop-killing-seals-your-tell-all-guide-to-the-seal-hunt
If you wear leather or eat meat, please look inward.
7
Yet another example of climate change. You probably don’t want to be on the wrong end of a seal... But they have marine biologists up there. They can corral them and humanely release back to where they need to be.
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They need to be moved quickly. That shouldn't be difficult.
Is there any military testing in the area that creates these disorienting sonic waves???
Or maybe they have a virus.
Cars kill billions of animals every year. No wonder several have already been struck. Gotta hurry!!!! Oh, I hit something. Oh well....
1
@Carrie ????
Did you read the article?
Harp seals spend winters in the waters off Newfoundland, and it is common for them to go ashore at times, and to swim into bays like the long, narrow ocean inlet that borders Roddickton-Bide Arm, said Garry Stenson, head of the marine mammal section at Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
“Then if the ice freezes up behind them, they have a harder time getting access to water,” he told the Canadian broadcaster, CBC. “It’s almost like they get going in a direction and just keep going, hoping that they’re going to eventually find water that way.”
3
"It is illegal to disturb marine mammals". So just let them die??? Since trump is not running things in Canada yet, there must be some intelligent officials that understand that rescue is not disturbing them. As I get closer to my mortality, I'm not as concerned as I once would have been. In a world gone mad, what is the use of staying alive.
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um, I think emptying some very smelly cans of soft cat food, tuna fish. or sardines and placing them like bread crumbs to the sea where a hole has been drilled in the ice will follow the letter of the law of not touching or disturbing the seals. After all the cat food is being put out for all the moose that inhabit the island.
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@Angela Because covering 10 20 30 miles of sardine trail through rough broken ice and having a very none mobile seal follow that trail is pure simplicity.
But hey at least you didn't say to let the Eskimos harvest them like one person.
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@Angela, really? I think you may be confusing harp seals with raccoons.
3
I don't understand why its so hard to capture and release these seals. They weigh as much as a American football player and surely a team of a dozen people can tranquilize them and haul them to the shoreline.
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"Build a wall" of course (speaking as a dual US - Canadian citizen). If only life were so simple - whether it be people or seals!
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Please contact Marine Mammal Centers to ask professional help - and allow them their lives, unlike the babies who have recently lost theirs due to Canada's archaic and cruel treatment. We need to WAKE-UP. There is obviously a bigger reason the seals are stranded. They shouldn't be considered' intruders' - instead beings that need to find their way home. Let's do right by them.
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Call the International Fund for Wildlife located in Yarmouthport, Cape Cod. I have worked with them rescuing marine mammals here on Cape Cod. They have the skills and personnel and have international outreach.
33
Perfect opportunity for The International Fund for Animal Welfare
They can figure it out with the appropriate Canadian department,
coordinate and quickly rescue the seals. Harp Seals give birth around late February so most females are probably pregnant.
National Geographic might wanna get involved if they can figure an angle. The Times can keep the the story alive. It’d be a nice break from all the grating news Times readers find these days.
Otherwise as there are millions of them and I believe they are legally hunted at certain times, who cares other the wolves, foxes, bears and other carnivores in that area. They’ve gotta eat too and would welcome this potential bonanza.
Thanks for reading.
7
How heartbreaking.
9
Getting them to the ocean, provided there is a boat launch within a hundred miles or so is not difficult. The only issue is how many at once. The methods to herd and move seals of that size without injury to either subject or herders have been developed and refined by many marine mammal rescue groups.
Just do it.
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It isn’t easy if the winds are blowing ice on shore. The route the seals took in could be jammed with moving / unstable slabs of ice. Alternatively, if the ice they rode in on has blown back out to sea the way back may involve a precipitous drop.
2
"But in Canada, it is illegal to disturb marine mammals — not to mention potentially dangerous — including touching, feeding and even getting near them."
Ah . . . except of course when Canadians club Harp seals to death every spring.
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It is not legal to club seals. The law was changed years ago but the myths persist. The truth is, if you eat any kind of commercially produced meat, dairy or eggs, then you are participating in a more barbaric system than the seal hunt. I wish people would educate themselves before continuing to spread outdated information.
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@Gillams, I don’t eat meat. I “educated” in this subject. The seal hunt is as barbaric as hunting gets.
1
How is helping them back to their home in the sea "disturbing" them? Poor seals.
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Act, help the seals! What is the mystery?
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@grace thorsen Get in your car and go.
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The solution seems easy - shoot them with tranquilizer darts, load them on trucks, and transport them back to their normal habitat. The Canadian agency in charge of wildlife should be able to handle that.
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@Paul Smith, no need to shoot them with anything. They are already stressed. That would likely kill them.
2
A Typical Canadian bureaucracy reaction to a problem:
Think the problem to death, and by the time a solution is found, the seals will be dead!
Capture the seals, then bring them to the Atlantic Ocean, and let them go.
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@Majortrout, oh I can't wait to hear the whining about the cost after the fact from the very same ubanites who think it is "simple"
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@Majortrout And how do we get 300-pound seals from the shore across the ice to open water? Trucks large enough to haul fully grown seals are too heavy to drive across ice safely, and pack ice is often too rough and irregular even for snowmobiles.
The seals may have accidentally sealed (sorry) their own fates.
12
@Kris Aaron, they could be trucked as far as possible, unloaded, then herded toward the water with skidoos or even by people on foot holding pieces of plywood in front of them (the plywood shields are used in marine mammal rescue). Once the seals get close enough that they can smell or hear the water, they will figure it out. If they don’t, at least they got a chance.
The weight of the creatures is not a problem in itself, although the large number of seals presents a logistical nightmare. Here in California we regularly rescue adult sea lions and occasionally even an elephant seal. Big creatures. It takes a lot of people, but it can be done.
4