Drowning at birth or being clubbed to death are not the best of outcomes for a young mammal. Yet as the latest victims of global warming, harp seal pups face both. Higher sea temperatures in the southern Gulf of St Lawrence have meant a lack of the solid ice that newborn seals need to live on. Thousands of seal pups are assumed to have drowned already.
In response, the Canadian fisheries minister announced last week that hunters would be limited to killing a total of 270,000 harp seals on the Atlantic coast, down from 335,000 last year.
Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare says that the Canadian government鈥檚 quota is still too high and ignores evidence from its own scientists that the harp seal population cannot sustain hunting at this level.
Advertisement
Fink told 快猫短视频 she had seen hardly any seals where normally there are thousands. All the southern gulf seals may have lost their pups, she says.
鈥淐ontinuing the hunt at the unsustainable level announced today is nothing short of irresponsible,鈥� Fink says. 鈥淭he government ignored similar warnings when it came to managing the cod fishery and the result was catastrophic.鈥�
The Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimates that in 2002, when there was very little ice, 75 per cent of pups in the gulf died. Many of the seals giving birth this year were born then. 鈥淚f we now kill off their few remaining pups,鈥� says Fink, 鈥渨e could be heading for the extirpation of harp seals in the gulf.鈥�
