Seal pups have been drowning because of thin and melting ice due to warmer than usual weather. So, the Canadian government has reduced the hunting quota by about 20 percent according to Doug Struck writing for the Washington Post:
“Canadian authorities reduced the quotas on the harp seal hunt by about 20 percent after overflights showed large numbers of seal pups were lost to thin and melting ice in the lower part of the gulf, off Prince Edward Island.
“We don’t know if it’s weather or climate. But we have seen a trend in the ice conditions in the last four or five years,” said Phil Jenkins, a spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. “The pups can’t swim for very long. They need stable ice. If the ice deteriorates underneath them, they drown.”
“We’ve brought this seal herd back from 1.8 million in the 1970s to 5.5 million in 2004…
“Our scientists say that the 5.5 million population can sustain this kind of event, but it has to be managed” with the lower hunting quotas, he said.
Read the complete article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040301754.html
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.